EXPANSION 

OF THE 

BRITISH EMPIRE 





Glass. 



Book. 



THE 

EXPANSION OF 

THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

C. F. CLAY, Manager 

LONDON : Fetter Lane, E.C. 4 




NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS : MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 

TORONTO : J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. 

TOKYO: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 



All rights reserved 




Cambridge Univ. r-ili, I 



GENERAL MAP OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1911. 



A SHORT HISTORY 

OF 

THE EXPANSION OF 

THE BRITISH EMPIRE 

1500 — 191 I 



BY 

WILLIAM HARRISON WOODWARD 

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD 



CAMBRIDGE : 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1919 






First Edition 1899. 

Second Edition 190*. 

Reprinted 1907, 1911. 

Third Edition 191 2. 

Reprinted 1915, 1916, 1919. 



PREFACE. 



THIS History is not a 'Manual,' i.e., a digest of the 
general body of facts relative to Colonial history. 
Events have been dwelt upon, or passed over, as they serve, 
or do not serve, to illustrate the broad underlying principles 
which from time to time governed British Expansion. A 
manual of information makes a bad text-book for a student. 
For the right kind of text-book should aim at something 
beyond storing the mind with facts : viz., at stimulating the 
reader to further enquiry, and at guiding him in the classifi- 
cation of his material and in framing conclusions about it. 
History-teaching is barren if this threefold result has not been 
attained. 

Further, the mental discipline which History affords may 
be better derived from the earlier rather than the later epochs ; 
in our subject, from the period of struggle and experiment 
rather than the age of full achievement and fruition. The 
story of the American Colonies, though we lost them, is in 
this way more instructive than the orderly progress of Australia. 
For real insight into motives and forces the Elizabethan time, 
perhaps, has merits which the Victorian age lacks. Hence I 
have of set purpose dwelt as fully upon the early history of the 
Empire as upon the later. 



vi Preface. 

This book is not intended for young students alone. It 
would be well if a narrative of the rise of our Empire were 
needed only by them. No civilised country treats its national 
history with such scant regard as Englishmen. It surprises 
foreigners to see how phlegmatically we ignore the story of the 
growth of our great dominion, an unconcern which reacts 
inevitably upon our schools of all types and grades. If 
Germany, for instance, had such a history as ours it would be 
the central subject round which all her national education 
would revolve. 

It is to be understood that the subject-matter of the 
present book should be read in conjunction with a good 
general history of England. It has been assumed that the 
main thread of our history has been fairly grasped; only in 
this way could the work have been kept within its present 
compass. 

I have to acknowledge the kindness of Messrs Macmillan 
in permitting me to use the map of ' New France and the 
American Colonies' from Prof. Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, 
and of Sir H. H. Johnston in permitting the use of one of 
the maps in his Colonization of Africa in the preparation of 
my map of 'British Africa in 1911.' 

Advantage has been taken of the demand for a second 

edition to follow the history of the Empire down to the Peace 

of Pretoria. 

Liverpool, 
fune, 1902. 

The third edition includes the events of importance down 
to the coronation of King George. 

t 

Crooksbury Hurst, 
Farnham. 

October, 191 1. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface v 

Table of Dates i 

Table of British Possessions 5 

CHAPTER I. 
The Period of Preparation, 1497 — 1558 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Beginnings of Expansion : the Elizabethan Age, 1558 — 1603 . 17 

CHAPTER III. 
First Period of Colonisation, 1603 — 1660 64 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Supremacy of the Mercantile Interest, 1660 — 1740 . . 131 

CHAPTER V. 
Expansion by Conquest — Canada and India, 1740 — 1763 . . 183 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Loss of the American Colonies, 1764 — 1783 ■ • . 109 



viii Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 

PAGfc 

The Creation of British Sovereignty in India, 1763 — 1805 . 329 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Canada under British Rule • > • 249 

CHAPTER IX. 
Australasia, 1788 — 191 1 263 

CHAPTER X. 
British South Africa, 1795 — 1911 282 

CHAPTER XI. 
The French War, West and East Africa, the Asiatic Seas, 

1793 — !9'i 300 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Consolidation ot the British Power in India, 1805 — 191 1 . 316 

LIST OF MAPS. 



1. General Map of the British Empire, 191 1 

1. Frobisher's Map, 1578 .... 

3. New England, 1620 — 1650 

4. India, circ. 1785 

5. Northern New France and the British Colonies, 

1750 — 1760 

6. India, 1805 

7. The Canadian Dominion and its Provinces 

8. The States of the Commonwealth of Australia 

9. British Africa, 19 11 
to. British South Africa, 1911 . . . 



To face Title-page 

P- 55 
p. 100 
p. 179 

p. 186 

P- *45 
p. 256 
p. 264 
p. 282 
p. 300 



A TABLE OF THE MORE IMPORTANT DATES 
IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. 



1492 Columbus discovers the Western Continent 

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. 

"497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland. 

1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India. 

1 52 1 Conquest of Mexico by Cortez. 

1 534 Jacques Cartier first explores the St Lawrence. 

1553 English adventurers in Muscovy. 

1562 First voyage of John Hawkins to the West Indies. 

1 580 Drake returns from his voyage round the world. 

1583 Gilbert takes formal possession of Newfoundland. 

1585 Raleigh founds colony of Virginia. 

1588 The defeat of the Armada. 

1600 Charter of the East India Company. 

1606-7 First charter of the Virginia Company. 

1 61 2 Factory of East India Company established at Surat 

1620 Settlement of Plymouth by the Pilgrim Fathers. 

1624-5 Barbados settled. 

1624 Virginia becomes a royal colony. 

1629 Settlement of Massachusetts. 

1633 First East India Company Factory in Bengal : Piply. 

1634 First Committee of Privy Council for control of Plantations. 

1639 East India Company Factory established at Madras. 

1640 East India Company Factory established at Hoogly. 
1642 First voyage of Tasman to Australia. 

165 1 Navigation Act. 

1651 St Helena occupied by East India Company. 

W. E. I 



2 Table of Dates. 

1652 Cape occupied by the Dutch. 

1655 Jamaica conquered. 

1660 Navigation Act. 

1 661 Bombay ceded by Portugal : first territorial settlement of 

Britain in India. 

1662 Mouth of the Gambia occupied by the African Company 

of London. 

1663 Carolina founded. 

1664 New Amsterdam (New York) captured. 
1667 Treaty of Breda. 

1670 Hudson's Bay Charter. 

1672 The Council of Trade and Plantations organised. 

1683 Revocation of Charter of Massachusetts. 

1689 The Revolution Parliament begins to assume authority in 

Colonial affairs. 

1696 Calcutta founded. 

1713 Treaty of Utrecht 

17 1 3 Assiento Treaty. 

1739 Outbreak of war between England and Spain. 

1 74 1 Dupleix made Governor of Pondicherry. 

1744 War with France in America and Carnatic. 

1 75 1 British at Madras take the Nawab of the Carnatic under 

their protection. 

1754 War on Upper Ohio. 

1755 D efeat of Braddock. 
1757 Pitt in office. 

1757 Victory of Plassey : English masters of Bengal 

1759 Capture of Quebec. 

1760 Submission of Canada. 

1763 Peace of Paris. 

1764 Victory of Buxar over Moghul and Nawab of Oudh. 

1765 Stamp Act of Grenville. 

1770 Captain Cook proclaims British occupation of Australia. 

1772 Warren Hastings Governor of Bengal. 

1773 The Indian Regulating Act 

1774 Quebec Act. 

1776 Declaration of Independence. 

1 78 1 Surrender of Cornwallis. 

1783 Treaty of Versailles. 



Table of Dates. 3 

1784 Pitt's India Bill passed. 

1787 Sierra Leone ceded to the English by the natives. 

1788 Captain Phillip lands at Botany Bay (January). 

1788 He takes formal possession of Eastern half of Australia 

under name of New South Wales (February). 
1 79 1 Canada Act 
1795 England first seizes the Cape. 

1798 Lord Wellesley Governor-General. 

1799 Conquest of Mysore. 

1802 Treaty of Bassein. 

1803 Mahratta War : Assaye and Laswarri. 

1804 Founding of Tasmania. 

1806 England finally occupies the Cape. 

1807 Slave trade in the British Empire abolished. 
1 81 2 Tasmania a separate colony. 

1814 Cession of Cape Colony by Treaty of Paris. 

1 81 8 Reduction of Mahrattas. 

1824 First Burmese war. 

1829 Swan River settlement founded (Western Australia). 

1836 Founding of South Australia. 

1836 The Great Trek. 

1837 Canadian Rebellion. 

1839 Annexation of New Zealand. 

1840 Canada Reunion Act : responsible Government granted. 
1840 Treaty of Waitangi with the Maoris. 

1840 Transportation to New South Wales abolished. 

1843 Natal proclaimed a British colony. 

1843 Gold Coast organised as Crown Colony. 

1849 Punjab annexed. 

1 85 1 Victoria a separate colony. 

1852 Responsible Government established in New Zealand. 
1852 Second Burmese war. 

1852 Independence of Transvaal recognised by Sand River 

Convention. 
1854 Independence of Orange Free State recognised by Bloem- 

fontein Convention. 
1854 Present Colonial Office organised. 
1855-6 Responsible Government established in New South Wales, 

Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. 
1856 Oudh annexed. 

i — a 



4 Table of Dates. 

1857 The Sepoy Mutiny. 

1858 The Queen proclaimed Sovereign of India : extinction of 

Moghul dynasty. 

1858 British Columbia founded. 

1859 Proclamation of Queensland as a separate colony. 

1867 British North America Act, creating the Dominion of 

Canada. 

1868 Basutoland placed under British protection. 

1869 Opening of Suez Canal. 

1872 Responsible Government established in Cape Colony. 

1877 Transvaal annexed by Great Britain. 

1877 Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India. 

1 88 1 Battle of Majuba Hill : independence restored to Transvaal. 

1882 Battle of Tel el Kebir, resulting in British occupation of 

Egypt. 

1884 Convention of London regulating the status of the Trans- 

vaal. 

1885 Establishment of Federal Council of Australasia. 

1885 Bechuanaland taken under British protection. 

1886 Niger Company's charter granted. 

1888 British East Africa Company's charter granted. 

1889 British South Africa Company's charter granted. 

1890 Responsible Government established in Western Australia. 
1893 Responsible Government established in Natal. 

1893 Conquest of Matabeleland. 

1894 Protectorate of Uganda. 

1895 Protectorate of B. E. Africa. 

1896 The Jameson Raid. 

1897 Famine in India begins. 

1898 Battle of Omdurman and recovery of Soudan. 

1899 Second Boer War. 

1900 Annexation of Boer Republics. 

1900 Protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria. 

1901 Australian Commonwealth set up. 

1901 Death of Queen Victoria. 

1 902 Peace of Pretoria. 

1907 Responsible Government granted to Transvaal and Orange 
River Colony. 

1909 Union of South Africa. 

1910 Death of King Edward VII. 



SUMMARY OF CHIEF BRITISH POSSESSIONS BEYOND 
THE LIMITS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM (1899). 

(Mainly from the Colonial Office List.) 

The British Colonial Empire comprises forty distinct and in- 
dependent governments administered under the Colonial Office. 
Beside these there are certain territories under the Foreign Office. 
— The Indian Empire is an entirely separate administration. 

Group I. In the subjoined list the names of the eleven colonies 
which possess elected Assemblies and Responsible 
Governments are printed in thicker type. 

GROUP II. The government of twenty-five colonies is administered 
by aid of Legislative Councils ; of four (Gibraltar, St 
Helena, Labuan and Basutoland) by the Governor 
alone. These are all called Crown Colonies: and are 
marked C in the list. 

Group III. Other possessions under British sovereignty are ad- 
ministered by Chartered Companies with more or less 
control from the Crown. 

Group IV. In Protectorates British control is looser and the 
native rule but slightly interfered with. 

GROUP V. Naval and Military posts : e.g. Ascension, under the 
Admiralty; Aden, under the India Office. 

Group VI. India. 

The dates given are usually those of the first effective acquisi- 
tion. In the case of many possessions British sovereignty has not 
been continuous. Thus, Cape Colony between 1802 — 1806 reverted 
to Holland, and several of the smaller West Indian islands have at 
different times passed by fortune of war into French hands. 



Summary of Chief British Possessions. 
EUROPE. 



Date of 
acquisition 



1704 
1800 
1878 



Name 



Gibraltar C 
Malta C. 
Cyprus C 



How acquired 



By conquest 
By conquest 
By treaty 



ASIA. 



Placed under 'Europe' 
in Colonial Officf 
List 



Date of 
acquisition 


Name 


How acquired 




1639 


India : Madras 


By purchase 


The dates are those of 


1640 


,, Bengal 


By grant from Moghul 


the beginnings of the 


1661 


,, Bombay 


By cession from Por- 
tugal 


three Presidencies 


— 1795 


Ceylon C. 


By conquest 




1841 


Hong Kong C. 


By treaties 




1846 


Labuan C. 


By treaties 




1785— 1819 


Straits Settlements C 


By treaties 




1874 


Malay States 


By treaties 


A Protectorate 


1838 


Aden 




A military post under 
the Indian Govern- 
ment 


1888 


Sarawak 


By treaty 


Under protection of 
British Government 


1881 


N. Borneo 


By treaties 


Under Chartered Co. 


1884 


British New Guinea C. 


By proclamation 




1898 


Wei-hai-Wei 


By treaty 


Admiralty post 



AUSTRALASIA AND THE PACIFIC. 



Date of 
acquisition 


Name 


How acquired 




1788 


New South Wales 


By proclamation : which 
covered the area after- 
wards divided into 
four colonies 




11 


Tasmania 




Created separate Co- 
lony in 1823 


„ 


Victoria 




ditto, 1 85 1 


„ 


Queensland 




ditto, 1859 


1829 


Western Australia 


By settlement 




1836 


South Australia 


By settlement 




1839 — 40 


New Zealand 


By settlement and treaty 




1874 


Fiji Islands C. 


By occupation 




1893 


Solomon Islands C. 


By proclamation 


Protectorate 




Gilbert Islands C. 


By proclamation 


Protectorate 


1900 


Tonga „ „ 


By Anglo German treaty 
1899 




1901 


Cook ,, 




Now under New Zea- 
land 



Summary of Chief British Possessions. 



WEST INDIES, &c. 



Date of 

acquisition 


Name 


How acquired 




1624 


Barbados C. 


By settlement 




1626 


St Christopher (St 

Kitts) C. 
Nevis C. 


By settlement 




1628 


By settlement 




1632 


Antigua and other Lee- 
ward Islands C. 


By settlement 




1635 


Virgin Islands C. 


By settlement 




1646 


Bahamas C 


By settlement 




1655 


Jamaica C. 
Dominica, Grenada, St 


By conquest 




1763 


By conquest 






Vincent, Tobago and 








other Windward Is- 








lands C. 






1797 


Trinidad C. 


By conquest 




1798 


Honduras C. 


By treaty 




— 1796 


British Guiana C 


By conquest 




1794 


St Lucia C. 


By conquest 




1765 


Falkland Isles C. 


By settlement 





NORTH AMERICA. 



Date of 
acquisition 


Name 


How acquired 




" 1760 


Canada 


By conquest 




1713 


Nova Scotia 


By conquest 


Acadia; previous oc- 




New Brunswick 




cupation or conquest 


1583 


Newfoundland 


By proclamation 


was only temporary 


1609 


Bermuda Islands C. 


By settlement 




1670 


Hudson's Bay Territory 


By charter 


including the Western 
territories, now part 
of the Dominion of 
Canada 



Summary of Chief British Possessions. 



AFRICA. 



Date of 

acquisition 


Name 


How acquired 




— 1795 


Cape of Good Hope 


By conquest 


These four Colonies 


1844 


Natal 


By occupation 


are now Provinces 


1900 


Transvaal 


By conquest 


of the Union of 


1900 


Orange Free State 


By conquest 


S. Africa 


1651 


St Helena C. 


By conquest 




1815 


Ascension 


By occupation 


Admiralty post 


1885 


Bechuanaland 


By proclamation 


Protectorate 


1890 


Rhodesia 


By occupation 


Chartered Co. 


1891 


British Central Africa 


By treaty 


Protectorate 


1888 


British East Africa 


By proclamation 


Protectorate since 1895 


18 10 


Mauritius and Sey- 
chelles C. 


By conquest 




1868 


Basutoland C. 


By treaty 




1662 


Gambia C. 


By occupation 




1661 


Gold Coast C. 


By occupation 




1787 


Sierra Leone C. 


By occupation 




1884 


Northern Nigeria 


By proclamation 




1886 


Southern Nigeria 


By proclamation 


Protectorate 1900 


1884 


Somali Protectorate 






1882 


Egypt 




Controlled and de- 
fended by British 
Government 


1894 


Uganda 


By treaty and occupa- 
tion 


Protectorate 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 

1497— 1558. 

Two characteristics particularly mark the history of the 
English nation : the development of ordered charac- 
liberty and the growth of its external dominion. £ nS j tlc ^ of 
Of these two sides of our national progress the History: 
former usually fills the larger space in our minds. 1 - Freedom. 
The text-books we read chiefly treat the history of English 
institutions as the central thread of the narrative. In foreign 
countries it was, for a century, the element in our national life 
which most attracted admiration. Yet the same energy and 
self-reliance which gave birth to our self-government in borough, 
shire, and nation, has had a further result besides a Parlia- 
mentary constitution. It has been precisely the 

- i'ii 1 a " Expansion. 

same force which has produced the second 
characteristic of our history — the extension of the English 
State into distant lands. The qualities of race which made 
the English a free people made them a colonising people. 

Let us note in the first place some of the features of English 
expansion. We shall find that it was at the _ . , 

r Features of 

outset slowly attempted ; a century of scattered English 
effort — of failure, in truth — passed before any "Pension, 
definite result was achieved. Spain and Portugal a. Gradual 
had built up great empires before England eve opment - 



io Characteristics. [CH. I. 

stirred herself to any purpose. This was partly due to the 
fact that English effort was the effort of indi- 

a H3t. IndiVidU " vid 11 ^ 8 . with little hel P> and often none at all > 
from the State : whilst Spain — as France, later — 

made the founding of empire the concern of Kings and 
Government. It was our English mode, halting and un- 
methodical, but yet the enterprise of a people accustomed to 
act for itself. Again, the guiding motives have 
<=. Motives: been various. At first, Trade ; to gain something 
of the wealth which was pouring in upon Spain 
and Portugal from west and east. The search for the ' North- 
West Passage' was a groping for new markets 
and rich produce. Then, Religion ; to found a 
Church In a new^ land away from the temptations and perse- 
cutions of the evil world. Thirdly, Settlement ; 
ett emen . ^ creation of a new piece of England across 
the seas, a true colony, a migration to a fresh and permanent 
home, though without the severance of the old tie of citizen- 
ship. Another motive was Defence ; to protect 
trade, religion and settlement, the old home and 
the new, from the enemies of both. 

In some respects English expansion has been like that 

of the City-states of ancient Greece. From 

ofGreece *** tnem j as fr° m England, citizens went out to 

found new communities, and where they went 

they carried the Greek name and civilization. Or again, it has 

been like that of Rome — the rule of conquerors, 

Rome Snd ° f lawgivers, governors, imposing order, toleration 

and peace. The British India of to-day throws 

a flood of light upon the administration of a Roman Province, 

Britain, say, or Syria, of the first or second century. Lastly, 

. . , . and the analogy is rather with Greece or Rome 

f. Its 'in- , -r. • • 1_ 

evitabie- than with any modern nation, British expansion 

quality. ^ anot j ier quality : it is, in a sense, inevitable. 

This may be due to race and its innate vigour ; to geography ; 



1497 — 1 558-] England under Henry VII. n 

to maritime instinct ; to permanent economic causes : it is 
probably the result of all these. But it is there; it perhaps 
eludes explanation ; it certainly needs no defence. 

The two great geographical discoveries which mark the 
close of the 15 th century, those of America in 
1492 and of the Cape route to India in 1498, D £c*£l£ and 
constitute the natural starting-point of our 
subject. It is an interesting fact to remember that, at the 
moment of the engagement of Columbus to the Court of 
Madrid, his brother was urging Henry VII of England to 
invite him to London to discuss the project of his voyage. 
The invitation reached Columbus too late; he was already 
pledged to Spain. We have perhaps in this incident evidence 
of the repute of English enterprise and seamanship, perhaps also 
a recognition of the ability of Henry himself. It is untrue, 
however, to say that but for an accident America might have 
been from the outset English instead of Spanish. For England 
as a country was weak and poor ; it was backward and isolated. 
It had no energy to spare for more than half a century to come 
for other tasks than those of repairing the waste of civil war, 
and of bringing herself abreast of European progress. 

England was still industrially dependent upon Flanders 
or Italy in several important respects. Her woollen cloths, 
the chief product of the country, were finished and dyed in 
Florence : the shipping in her ports was Italian or Flemish : 
her bankers were foreigners : her luxuries, like books, and 
not a few necessaries, as weapons, were produced abroad. 
England had as yet no strong middle class of trained mer- 
cantile instinct, of capital and intelligence. In knowledge of 
affairs, inventiveness, elasticity, Englishmen were among the 
backward peoples of Western Europe. In geographical re- 
search and in maritime enterprise the Portuguese and the 
Italians were in the front rank ; and they were rivalled by the 
French and the Spaniards before English seamen learnt to 
venture into distant waters. 



12 John and Sebastian Cabot. [ch. I. 

The history of the Cabots illustrates the point. John 
„ _ . Cabot, a Genoese by birth and a Venetian by 

The Cabots ..--•• . . . 

discover North residence, lived from time to time in Bristol, 
^™f£ ca ' where his son Sebastian was probably born about 

1477. To them was granted by Henry VII in 
1497 the first patent for western discovery, and under it father 
and son set sail to explore an Atlantic route to Cathay and 
Tartary. They were commissioned "to sail with five ships 
under the royal flag and to set up the king's banner as his 
officers." The profits of the voyage were to be their own, 
subject to a royalty of one-fifth to be paid to the Crown. 
Bristol was named as their port of trade. We have no par- 
ticulars of their journey. St John's in Newfoundland was 
discovered by them on June 24th ; some information of the 
fisheries was brought back and Cabot received a donation of 
;£io from the privy purse. The following year saw a second 
voyage of John Cabot. He is supposed to have reached the 
American coasts about 67!° lat. and to have coasted as far 
south as the mouth of the Delaware in 38 . There was no 
record of any exploration of the land or of anything in the 
nature of occupation, but the two voyages of John Cabot 
were regarded more than a century later as constituting the 
English claim to the American mainland by right of discovery. 
Nothing proves more conclusively the unfitness of England 
at that period for a policy of external growth than the neglect 
with which this most important discovery of the North 
American mainland was treated. We do not know the fate 
of John Cabot ; Sebastian is not mentioned for nearly twenty 
years ; he had returned to the service of Venice. There are 
allusions to voyages of other navigators, in 1501 and sub- 
sequent years. In 15 17 Sebastian Cabot was apparently in 
command of a venture to the coasts of South America, but 
no result followed. Henry VIII in his earlier years had like 
his father reasons of policy for not appearing as a rival of Spain 
in the Indies. In the 15th century the right of the Papacy to 



l 497 — 155^.] The Partition of the New World. 13 

award legal title to newly discovered lands was disputed by 
no Christian power. Portugal had sought, for her African 
possessions, the sanction of successive Popes. In 1493 Spain 
acquired the like security for the recent discoveries of Colum- 
bus. Pope Alexander VI in that year issued 

r ... The Bulls of 

the famous Bulls by which Spam was entitled to Alexander vi, 
hold all territories discovered by her situate "one I493 ' 
hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde Isles and the Azores." 
Portugal promptly claimed an understanding with her neighbour 
as to their respective spheres. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 
1494 Spain agreed to push back the eastern limit of her rights 
to a point 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, and 
this was afterwards determined to mean the meridian of longi- 
tude 45.37 W. on our maps. Thus it happened that Brazil, on 
its discovery in 1500, fell to Portugal, who could claim, in 
America, nothing further. She, of course, retained her African 
discoveries, and was left to conquer the East undisturbed. 
Spain in return appropriated all that lay west of the line of 
partition. The two peninsular powers assumed the recog- 
nition on the part of all good churchmen of their right of 
possession of such regions of the globe as were at that date 
unoccupied by Christian peoples. But the French king, 
Francis I, treated the Bulls with indifference, and ignored the 
Treaty of 1494, to which he was no party, founded upon them. 
Henry VII by his patents to Cabot shewed that he did not 
regard such an agreement as the last word on the question, 
but apart from other reasons for acquiescence he was busy in 
marrying his son to a Spanish princess, through whom some 
share of the wealth thus claimed might flow towards England. 

In Henry VIII we are face to face with a son of the New 
Aee. He early gained a true conception of the 

•• r t^ , , • t- rx., -J HenryVIII 

position of England in Europe. 1 he rapid sue- and the ex- 
cess of Spain and Portugal in their respective J f r EoSnd! h 
spheres, the dominant influence of the Spanish 
House, his own special problems, dynastic and ecclesiastical, 



14 Henry VIII and the New Age. [CH. I. 

compelled him to caution in foreign affairs, and to the con- 
centration of his energies upon national defence. The King 
proved himself, as will be shewn, one of the true founders 
of English expansion as the creator of the Tudor navy. He 
encouraged ship-building and ship-owning; he was keenly 
interested in the fisheries in English and in distant waters; 
and in the seamanship of which they were then, as they have 
ever been, the best training school. From Southampton and 
Bristol ships built and owned in England began to find their 
way to the Baltic and the Levant. William Hawkins, a typical 
west country trader, sailed to the Canaries, the Guinea coast, 
and even to Brazil. Henry and his minister Wolsey are 
found in correspondence with students of geography, and with 
adventurers such as De Prado, a citizen of London, who 
sailed from Plymouth to Labrador and Newfoundland. He 
encouraged the voyage of Hore to Cape Breton in 1536, 
which, though futile in itself, deeply impressed contemporaries 
by the narrative of the perils of the north Atlantic. Still, in 
spite of the comparative failure of these early efforts, the taste 
for adventure was growing. Newfoundland fishing banks 
attracted yearly numbers of fishermen from the west of 
England, and journeys to the Barbary and Guinea coasts were 
probably more frequent than our scanty records imply. 

Before the middle of the century motives of politics and re- 
New s irit hgi° n were n0 longer an obstacle to discovery; 
of enterprise, they, indeed, rather invited Englishmen to dispute 
1540-1558. the daims of gpain tQ the New World The papal 

Bulls were no longer resented, they were laughed at. More- 
over, the printing-press was now applied to the production 
of maps and charts. In Antwerp, Bruges and Dieppe were 
published those remarkable early efforts in cartography which 
stimulated navigation in English sea-coast towns. What Prince 
Henry the Navigator had done a century earlier, and what 
Hakluyt was to do nearly a century later, the great map-makers, 
Mercator, Ortelius, and their school, did now in the first part of 



1497 — I S58-] -A new spirit of enterprise. 15 

the 1 6th century in creating a thirst for maritime adventure. 
The secrecy of ocean routes could no longer be maintained. 
In England Thomas Cromwell, following Henry VII, carried 
legislation directed to encouraging foreign trade in English 
ships; under his master's immediate impulse the English navy 
was admitted to be the strongest afloat; a mercantile marine 
was in existence and increasing ; in building and rigging ships 
we were not behind the Flemings and the Italians. A new 
aristocracy had arisen, men of practical aims and ready to 
join the traders of London and Bristol in enterprises which 
promised both profit and adventure. The middle class was 
growing in wealth and numbers, whilst the country population 
was already tending to drift into the seaport and manufacturing 
towns. A new generation had sprung up, ignorant of civil 
war, proud of national independence in Church and State, with 
higher tastes and wider knowledge, and unwilling to lag behind 
the rest of Western Europe in wealth or repute. Thus, al- 
though beyond the patent of the Cabots no definite step in 
the expansion of England is recorded up to the year 1550, we 
see the nation preparing rapidly for its future task. 

The chief centres of this new spirit of enterprise, as we 
should expect, were the southern and western sea-board towns 
from London to Bristol : and in the middle years of the 
sixteenth century it was directed principally to the Levant, 
the Guinea coast and the north-east of Europe, where it was 
attempted to open up a route hitherto untried to India and 
China, for Southampton was losing its traditional import 
trade, via Italy, in eastern productions now handled by 
the Portuguese by way of the Cape. Antwerp, Catholic and 
Spanish, was now the centre of the distributing trade in eastern 
and continental produce. Moreover, the treasure, poured in 
increasing volume from Mexico into Cadiz, was fast becoming 
a peril to Europe, as Protestantism was destined soon to 
discover. Thus public and private motives alike combined 
to push English merchant- venturers and their supporters into 



1 6 The North-East Passage. [CH. I. 

activity. In 1549 Sebastian Cabot, the patriarchal figure of 
the new generation of seamen, was created Grand Pilot of 

England. Under his presidency a company of 
Rus°sia g i553. discovery was formed to explore a North-East 

Passage to China. Merchants of London and 
men of position were his colleagues, and the famous journey 
organised by Cabot in 1553, when Sir Hugh Willoughby 
perished, was so far successful that Richard Chancellor, his 
comrade, reached Moscow via Archangel, and in a sense dis- 
covered Russia to western Europe. Next year the company 
received a royal charter, addressed to the Marquis of Win- 
chester and " other merchant adventurers," for " the discovery 
of lands unknown and not before frequented." The Russian 
journeys were extended to the Caspian and even to Persia, 
and the Muscovy Company, which in Elizabeth's reign con- 
tinued to develope the trade thus opened, was a model of 
_. many similar ventures to Africa and the Levant. 

The country ' 

ready for ad- The farther east, however, was to remain long 
venture, 1558. untouc h e d ; and in the west, Cabot's prior 
discovery had only led to an increasing share in the New- 
foundland fishing. 

At the time of Elizabeth's accession we see that the way of 
expansion was but prepared : but certain facts are already 
significant. The spirit of adventure is born, and with it some 
experience in distant navigation ; merchants and gentry have 
begun to combine their capital in enterprise with encourage- 
ment from the Crown. The State itself, however, attempts 
nothing, all is left to the initiative of the individual. Statesmen 
recognise rights of occupation in distant seas, but ignore vague 
claims, whether supported by Pope or King, not so confirmed : 
and there is also that reluctance to quarrel with Spain which 
marked English policy till 1588. In short the elements of a 
new policy are all ready, and await the opportunity which in 
the critical state of English relations abroad cannot be long 
delayed. 



17 



CHAPTER II. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPANSION : THE ELIZABETHAN 
AGE, 1558 — 1603. 

Not until the reign of Elizabeth did the full force of the 
Renaissance make itself felt in England. Rapid The Eliza . 
as the progress of the country had been since bethanage 
Bosworth Field, England still lagged behind time growth of 
France, Spain, and the Low Countries. Hence En g la «d. 
we were, as a people, late in absorbing those new influences 
which, derived in the main from Italy, were rapidly developing 
the modern life of western Europe. The classical literary 
spirit, the new architecture, the desire for greater dignity and 
refinement of outward life, the wider interests in nature and in 
travel were blended with the master aims which animated 
Elizabethan England — the passionate zeal for national inde- 
pendence alike in Church and State. 

Thus in a very real sense the reign of Elizabeth stands for 
a time of " beginnings." It is the starting-point of our modern 
history. In particular the love of adventure and enterprise 
beyond the seas, the concept of England as a maritime nation, 
faintly realized in the first half of the century, becomes in the 
second a definite mark of the national temper. Our purpose 
is to trace the main stages in the growth of this new force in 
English history. And here at the outset one caution is needed. 
If there be any epoch in which the external growth of the 
English nation may be treated as a " department " of our 
history to be traced out and judged apart from the rest, this 
first epoch is certainly not one of them. In no reign are the 

w. e. 2 



1 8 The Policy of the Queen. [CH. II. 

different threads of English policy so closely interwoven. 
However we may isolate, in order to lay stress upon, the 
element of expansion in Elizabethan England, such study will 
be wholly misleading unless we bear constantly in mind the 
religious, the dynastic, the continental, even the personal, 
factors which make up the complex whole of the policy of 
the reign. The beginnings of the Empire were in part 
sought unconsciously, in part were the result of deliberate 
action. But in neither case were they brought about inde- 
pendently of the main current of affairs. 

Within a very short time of Elizabeth's accession the 

hard facts with which English policy had to 
ofthe Queen reckon during the next five-and-twenty years 

were already manifest, i. The Catholic Church 
had addressed itself formally to the task of recovering the 
ground lost to it by the Reformation, notably in England. 
The Counter-Reformation had begun. The Papal Chair was 
filled by men profoundly devoted to the cause of the Church ; 
the Jesuit Order had secured the leading voice in its policy. 
2. Spain was now identified with the political power of Rome, 
whose obedient and ruthless servant she was henceforth, both 
in the Old World and the New. Catholicism in English eyes 
wore for a time the cast of Spanish fanaticism and Spanish 
cruelty. 3. It was clear that in France in spite of a deep 
religious cleavage in the nation the Government and Paris were 
already irrevocably Catholic. Spain, backed by the wealth of 
the Indies, was about to put forth her whole energy to eradi- 
cate heresy in the Low Countries. 4. The succession was 
uncertain; the death of the Queen without an heir would 
renew the crisis of 1553. Mary Queen of Scots is identified 
with a wide-spread conspiracy to bring back England to the 
papal allegiance. 5. This isolation of England and of Elizabeth 
in presence of an aggressive Catholicism was made complete 
by the Bull of Excommunication launched against the person 
ofthe Queen in February 1570. 



1558 — 1603.] The Channel Rovers. 19 

Such were the conditions, so ominous of danger both to the 
nation and dynasty, amidst which Elizabeth and her counsellors 
had to steer their course. Fortunately, she was served by men 
of ability, insight and self-restraint, equal to her own. Tact, 
patience, dissimulation, were, for a time at least, her main 
defensive weapons. The Queen fell back upon the fortunate 
isolation in which both her country and herself found them- 
selves : she would have no foreign alliances and no foreign 
war. To marry Philip would be only a greater error than to 
quarrel with him. She encouraged the Dutch Calvinist in the 
conflict against Spain, the Huguenot against Catherine de' 
Medici, but nothing would induce her to declare formal war on 
their behalf. She thought, perhaps after 1570 wrongly, that 
the religious unity of her own kingdom would not yet bear the 
strain of a struggle abroad ; and that neither in money, in men, 
nor in fleets was this country equal to a conflict with the great 
Catholic powers. To efface herself and to give no cause of 
offence, to bide the time when self-assertion might be less 
perilous, and the confidence of the nation in its own powers 
might be fit for a great trial, was the policy of Elizabeth 
for nearly thirty years. Caution, as even Burleigh thought, 
may have grown into timidity, economy into parsimony, and 
the desire to avoid war have actually invited attack. But the 
waiting policy did in the result achieve its purpose, and the 
long period of hesitancy and of reserve prepared the way for a 
brilliant epoch of success. 



The Marian persecutions had driven large numbers of 
Protestants into seclusion, and others, more The Channe i 
sturdy and more obnoxious to the authorities, Rovers, 
into exile. But in the West of England where reformed 
doctrines had taken deep root, not a few of the younger men, 
roused by the stories of oppression, or its actual experience, 
plunged into a reckless career of sea-roving. There had always 



20 The Channel Rovers. [ch. II. 

been along the west country coasts a tendency to wrecking, 
which attracted the lawless spirits ; and so when sons of the 
yeomen and of the gentry vented their hatred of Rome and 
Spain upon foreign trading vessels passing up and down the 
Channel there were plenty of hardy mariners ready to follow. 
Huguenots from the French shore joined forces with Devon- 
shire sea-dogs from Dartmouth or Bideford and plundered im- 
partially all shipping that passed up into what were called the 
Narrow Seas. It happened that nearly all their prizes were 
Spanish or Flemish ships trading between Lisbon and Cadiz, 
Antwerp and London. That guaranteed the venturers a re- 
venge sweetened by profits, for such merchantmen alone 
were allowed to carry the wealth of the East and West 
to Northern Europe. It was a fierce life, a state of war with- 
out its rights for the victims, or its duties for the conquerors. 
We cannot doubt that bitter passions, religious hate, greed, 
sheer love of violence and bloodshed were only too easily fed 
in these buccaneering exploits. But on the other hand they 
taught the Spaniards a lesson which they were slow to learn, 
that the Englishman was no weak, spiritless prey whom it was 
safe to disregard in laying hands upon trade and dominion or 
in crushing heresy. Moreover, to the west country mariners 
themselves Channel piracy, for it was nothing more, proved a 
stern school of seamanship and naval warfare. They learnt 
from it the weakness of the Spaniard at sea ; his lack of skill 
and resource and of real courage, the helplessness of his slow, 
heavy galleons against small, smartly-handled English vessels. 
Nor did they ever forget the grim attractiveness of the lawless 
buccaneering life itself, its excitement and its profit. 

As we look back, such unauthorised warfare in English 
waters upon peaceful trading vessels sheltered by a friendly 
flag strikes us as utterly contrary to ideas of international 
right. The responsible ministers of the day, notably the 
greatest of them Cecil, probably felt so too. But we must not 
forget the outrages which called such passions into being. 



1558 — 1603;] The attitude of the Queen. 21 

The conscience of men, even in that age, no longer sanctioned 
barbarities such as the burning of Protestants in London or 
Oxford, or the torture of Huguenots or of English sailors by 
the Inquisition at Cadiz or Mexico. To the plain west country 
mind to hunt down all who had part or lot in inflicting such 
fiendish cruelties was a simple dictate of justice. 

The taste for sea-roving and harrying the Spaniard did 
not lapse with the death of Mary and the end The att it U de 
of the persecution that had in the first instance of Elizabeth 

, . . _.. , . and Cecil to- 

Called it into play. Elizabeth, as we have seen, wards the cor- 

dare not openly countenance action on the part sairs * 

of her subjects which might embroil her with Philip. But she 

had no desire to forbid enterprise which was the outcome of 

patriotic feeling, and, what was more important still, provided, 

without national cost, seamanship and fleets. The Queen's 

navy was at this time falling steadily into decay, as Cecil 

admitted, and the Crown refused the means for building or for 

manning one. Yet both ships and sailors were likely to be 

badly needed. The minister, William Cecil, protested against 

this irregular warfare, partly because of its very irregularity and 

partly as likely to embarrass his policy. But the Queen 

decided to ignore what she could with difficulty prevent. So 

English and Huguenot corsairs swept the Channel and the 

Bay of Biscay. Tremaynes, Stukeleys and Cobhams, scions of 

famous west country homes, continued to spend their money in 

fitting out craft of twenty or fifty tons with cutlasses and guns 

and reckless men only too glad to learn the art of using them. 

Fishermen abandoned their favourite grounds off Kinsale or in 

the Iceland seas and took to the more profitable trade of 

piracy; and throughout the West, from Bideford round to 

Exmouth, the sea-dog's life was the envy of every young fellow 

of spirit. Elizabeth knew that it was a venturesome game for 

her to play; but she knew too that she could, if driven to it, 

disown all part in it; and that the men who captained the 

vessels, and the crews who manned them, would understand 



22 John Hawkins and the Slave Trade. [CH. II. 

and were prepared for all risks that might befall. The truth 
was that, though Spain and England might be at peace, Pro- 
testantism and Romanism were at deadly war. The peace 
was a fiction, perhaps a necessary one, of sovereigns : the state 
of war was the grim reality of things as understood on both 
sides by their subjects. 

Here then was one English school of navigation and naval 
a s hooi of warfare ; a hard school but in many ways a most 
nayai seaman- efficient one. We notice the small size of the 
craft employed; the skill and intrepidity with 
which they were handled in very difficult waters ; the reckless 
daring with which their captains attacked ships five times their 
size. They carried small cannon of no great range but served 
with ever-increasing accuracy; yet in spite of the growing 
power of artillery their main endeavour at this period was still 
to grapple and board the enemy and finish the struggle on 
deck. Skill to build, rig and equip the best type of fighting- 
ship was swiftly learnt in the busy ship-yards of the sheltered 
creeks and tideways of south-west coasts. 

But there were venturers of another type. At the time 
of Elizabeth's accession William Hawkins of 
the indies: the Plymouth had handed on his business to his 
S 62— ^68 ade ' two sons > °f whom John was the younger. 
Though related to more than one Devonshire 
family whose younger members were busy privateering in the 
Channel, John Hawkins held aloof and was engaged in sober 
trade which carried him as far south as the Canaries, where he 
established friendly relations with the Spanish settlers and 
merchants. He had himself no quarrel at this time with the 
Inquisition, he avoided politics and it was enough for him that 
Elizabeth and Philip were at peace. No doubt he is a type of 
many staid respectable merchants of Bristol, London and South- 
ampton, who, whilst casting envious looks upon the new Spanish 
monopoly, desired nothing more than opportunity of peaceful 
trade with the new continents lately revealed to view. John 



1558 — 1603.] His Voyages of 1562 and 1564. 23 

Hawkins, now in confidential relations with the Admiralty, was 
the first to feel his way into the new field of mercantile venture; 
for " by his good and upright dealing being grown in love and 
favour with the people (of the Canaries) he gained much know- 
ledge from them of the West Indies." Amongst other things 
he learnt that " negroes were very good merchandise in Hispa- 
niola (Hayti) and that store of negroes might easily be had 
upon the coast of Guinea." He resolved to try the experiment 
of a cargo and found several leading London merchants very will- 
ing to become adventurers in the transaction. Three ships were 
provided of 120, 100 and 40 tons burden, carry- 
ing 100 men in all. He sailed in October, 1562, VO yag,f r i56a 
found a good hunting-ground in Sierra Leone, 
where he captured or bought 300 negroes. With this freight he 
made direct for San Domingo, thus boldly defying the Spanish 
monopoly of the West. Here he found the settlers not back- 
ward in trading for his illicit merchandise. But he stood 
" always upon his guard," trusting the Spaniard no further than 
that by his own strength he was able to master them. Touch- 
ing at three ports in the island he returned to England, after 
an absence of nearly a year, his cargo all disposed of in ex- 
change for hides, sugar, ginger and a few pearls. The venture 
had proved commercially a great success ; there had been ap- 
parently no difficulty in trading, no fighting, and, we may add, 
no sign of any scruples as to the nature of the traffic. The 
ease and profits of the voyage kindled the imagination of the 
London traders as its boldness startled the Spanish officials. 

In the following year, 1564, a second venture, on a much 
larger scale, was sent out, Hawkins commanding 
a ship of 700 tons with three smaller craft and a voyaged", 
complement of 170 men. The month of January 
was spent in hunting negroes in the region of Sierra Leone 
where Hawkins apparently could hardly have been surprised to 
find himself received with suspicion, which quickly became 
treachery and hostility. The Atlantic voyage lasting 48 days 



24 Hawkins* Second Voyage. [CH. II. 

was attended by something of the horrors which formed a 
terrible feature of the " middle passage " throughout the history 
of the slave trade. Hawkins, touching Dominica on March 9th, 
now passed to the mainland west of the Orinoco. But he 
encountered a strict refusal on the part of Spanish officials of 
permission to trade. He was regarded as a dangerous intruder, 
for the Spaniard with perfectly sound instinct detected peril to 
the sanctity of their great Western preserves if English vessels 
were allowed to penetrate them with impunity. So the order 
had gone forth "that no man should traffickwith us, but should 
resist us with all the force they could." But Hawkins with his 
cargo of slaves sickly and dying and his own crew diminishing 
from stress of climate was, though against his will, forced to 
use threats. He knew that the settlers were ready to barter, 
and he was strong enough to hold his own provided fresh food 
and water could be had, and in the end he gained his point. 
But he took with him from Spanish seas that which was more 
valuable than hides or pearls ; for coasting along the mainland 
in the direction of Panama, then crossing to Jamaica, San 
Domingo and Cuba, he had ample opportunity of spying out 
the wealth of this tropical world and its unprotected state. He 
found it, though appropriated, largely unoccupied, and he had 
learnt that though peaceable trade would not be allowed, some 
show of force backed by English determination might produce 
speedy and profitable results. But we should note that on this 
voyage Hawkins uniformly appeals to the friendship between 
his sovereign and the Spanish king ; he asks only for the same 
freedom to trade that was conceded to English ships in Spain 
and Flanders; he never actually proceeds to hostilities; and 
succeeds, though less easily than before, in transacting business 
"with great profit to the venturers of the said voyage, as also 
to the whole realm in bringing home both gold, silver, pearles 
and other jewels great store." 

The homeward voyage was made by the coast of Florida, 
thought to be an island, where he relieved the struggling French 



1558 — 1603.] His Third Voyage; 1567. 25 

settlement, hard pressed by Indians, but found no Spaniards. 
The fertility of the soil made a ■ strong impression and we 
already find the suggestion of pastoral settlement. Driven 
northwards by gales the fleet reached the fishing grounds off 
Newfoundland and arrived at Padstow on the 20th September, 

1565. 

The third voyage, of the year 1567, was planned on a larger 
scale. There were now five ships, two of which 
were "Queen's ships" hired out for the occasion, V oyage h i567 
and another was under command of Francis 
Drake, a cousin of John Hawkins, who had already in the 
previous year penetrated the Indian seas on his own account. 
Hawkins himself invested some equivalent of ,£15,000 of our 
money in the venture which had as the two previous ones 
an exclusively commercial object, notwithstanding the presence 
of the two ships lent from the Royal Navy. The usual cargo 
of between 400 and 500 negroes was secured, Dominica 
safely made, and trade opened. But the Spanish governors on 
the mainland had received more stringent orders than before ; 
the news of the venture had reached Madrid and had caused 
much searching of heart. So Hawkins finds that the traffic goes 
forward "somewhat hardly, because the King had straightly 
commanded all his governors in those parts by no means to 
suffer any trade to be made with us." One town, as in his 
previous voyage, he occupied in force until business was com- 
pleted. Carthagena he found too strong to admit of attack, 
but "in all other places where we traded the Spaniard in- 
habitants were glad of us and traded willingly." 

Hawkins now made for home. He was driven by hurricanes 
into the Gulf of Mexico : entering the Spanish harbour of San 
Juan de Ulua he begged leave " as friends to King Philip " to 
trade for provisions and to refit for the Atlantic voyage. There 
is no reason to doubt that Hawkins meant peace : but un- 
luckily a strong Spanish fleet of war appeared off the natural 
breakwater which encloses the port To secure his own safety 



26 Negro Slavery. [CH. II. 

Hawkins insisted on a written agreement to the effect that his 
weak and battered ships should be allowed free egress. He 
occupied the breakwater and trained his heaviest guns against 
the Spanish frigates lying outside, which now ran serious risks 
should the gale be renewed. The agreement was made and 
signed. The Spanish commander broke his word; his heavy 
frigates bore down on the English vessels lying moored in easy 
security. Two only of the five escaped to sea with the loss ol 
a large part of their crews. But the fight had been severe and 
they were not further pursued. In the end Hawkins reached 
England, but he had been obliged to set ashore ioo of his 
crew to avoid starvation on the homeward voyage. Of these 
the survivors ultimately fell into the hands of the Spaniard; 
the Inquisition took cognizance of them, some were executed 
and others lingered in prisons in Mexico and in Seville. So 
ended the last attempt at trading in the Indies by English 
merchant-captains under the guise of friends of King Philip. 
The feelings with which we regard these voyages of Haw- 
kins, important historically as they are, cannot 
Trade. *" Dut De affected by the immediate object with 
which they were undertaken. Hawkins is the 
founder of the English traffic in negro slaves. African slavery 
had for nearly 50 years formed part of the Spanish West Indian 
system, and, in its origin, the importation of negro labour had 
received the active support of such a man as Las Casas, the 
earnest advocate of the interests of the Native races of Spanish 
America. Negro slavery was advocated partly as a means of 
preserving the Indian race by the substitution for their labour 
of the strength of a far more vigorous stock ; partly as a means 
of civilizing the negro himself, who was in his native home the 
helpless victim of bloodthirsty tyranny and superstition. The 
Spanish Government endeavoured to regulate the trade and to 
impose conditions upon the planters in the interest of their 
human chattels. The State licensed such traffic ; the Catholic 
Church approved it ; public opinion raised no voice against it. 



1558 — 1603.] The Spanish Colonial System. 27 

The Elizabethan Protestant, finding no commandment against 
slavery in the Bible, did not stop to consider the abstract ques- 
tion of the humanity of the practice, and it is perfectly evident 
from the narratives of his voyages that no twinge of moral 
compunction in the matter ever touched the conscience of 
John Hawkins. 

The voyages of Hawkins brought the Spanish Empire of the 
West for the first time within the sphere of Eng- Natur of 
iish policy. The chief characteristics of this Spanish coio- 
dominion were already settled, though its widest 
limits were not yet reached. Spanish settlement differed so 
materially from colonisation of the English type that it is 
instructive to draw attention to its chief features. The "heroic 
age " of conquest which followed the discoveries of Columbus 
had passed away. With undisputed occupation, the peculiar 
defects of the colonial system of Spain soon shewed themselves. 
In the first place her possessions were really Dependencies, 
rather than true colonies, in that they contained a large native 
population of various grades of civilization, governed entirely 
in the interests of the conquering race, which appropriated all 
the land and mineral wealth to its own purposes. These 
dependencies had been for the most part easily won ; they were 
here and there extremely rich in precious metals ; valuable 
products such as tobacco, spices, sugar and ginger were grown 
by aid of slave labour. Again, large estates of rich land enabled 
the planter to amass in a few years a fortune which was carried 
home to be enjoyed in Europe. For there was little desire for 
permanent settlement, nor was the material present which could 
create a vigorous New Spain. The Spaniard of the Indies 
quickly degenerated alike in character and physical energy; 
the cruelty, luxury and vice which Italy had developed in the 
Spanish nature marked also the slave-owning settler in the 
Western seas. The tyranny of the officials, the persecuting 
spirit of the Church, the narrow monopoly of trade, the semi- 



38 Exclusion of foreign traders. [CH. II. 

feudal relations of classes, were transferred from European 
Spain to the New World. The hand of the State was every- 
where ; freedom of thought and action, individual enterprise in 
trade or discovery, were repressed or discouraged. It is most 
significant that the Spanish colonial empire never produced 
a Spanish mercantile marine. The production of precious 
metals was the monopoly of the government of Madrid, which 
kept a close control of the entire traffic between the Indies 
and' the mother country through the House of Commerce or 
" Contractation House " at Seville. The doctrine that a foreign 
"plantation" and a colonial empire exist solely for the profit 
of the parent state was once for all impressed upon the Latin 
peoples of Europe by the example of Spain. 

The Indies were administered under four Governments, of 
which that of "Tierra Firme" or the South American mainland 
('the Spanish Main' of the Elizabethan narratives) and that of 
Peruana with its rich silver mines of the Andes were the most 
important. To each Governor were sent, as we have seen, 
urgent instructions to preserve the Indo-Spanish seas from 
European intrusion, and that trade with all foreign ships should 
be rigorously forbidden to the settlers. So that it became clearly 
understood in England that the Spaniards "account all other 
nations for pirates, rovers and thieves that visit any heathen 
coast that they have once sailed by or looked on." But 
although French privateers had sacked Havannah with ease in 
1553, and Hawkins had, ten years later, shewn what one daring 
captain could attempt, no precautions had yet been taken to 
defend this astounding monopoly by adequate force. 

After the disastrous ending of Hawkins' last voyage it 

Three types became manifest that English enterprise in the 

ofadventurers: Western seas was about to enter upon a new 

i. Hawkins . r . 

and commer- phase. It was evident that a peaceful trade with 
cmi methods. fae Spanish settlements was henceforth rigorously 
closed to English merchants and captains, and Hawkins, in 



1558 — 1603.] The English and the Indies. 29 

spite of the miserable traffic in which he was engaged, stands 
for the attempt to extend the trade between England and 
Spain upon ordinary commercial methods. Both Government 
officials and City merchants could acknowledge Hawkins and 
support him without scruple. But (a) the exclusive colonial 
system of Spain, intent only upon securing to herself the 
sources of her newly-found treasure, and (b) the activity of the 
Inquisition, bent upon debarring heretics from the New World, 
definitely closed the West to the free commerce of Europe. 

English adventurers, then, were from this time confronted 
by three possible alternatives. First, to abandon all attempt 
at trading beyond the limits of Europe ; second, to extend the 
operations of the sea-rovers from the Channel to the Western 
seas ; third, to discover fresh maritime routes giving access to 
regions beyond the sphere of Spanish and Portuguese influence, 
where peaceful ventures and settlements might be possible to 
Englishmen. 

The temper of the time placed the first alternative out of 
the question. The growing desire for maritime adventure and 
trade was too strong to yield to a first repulse. Nor would the 
English merchant consent to be shut out from access to the 
great continent which Spain had appropriated to herself. The 
right of Spain to the exclusive trade of America was never 
admitted by Elizabeth and her ministers, although they shrank 
from formally disputing it. 

The second alternative appealed directly to the more 
adventurous spirits, especially in the west. It .. 
was too risky to attract the responsible traders of and privateer- 
London or Bristol; Burleigh for fear of conse- ,ng ' 
quences condemned it openly ; the Queen was its secret ad- 
herent, from a love of bold adventure for its own sake, and a 
shrewd conviction of its ultimate advantage to the naval 
strength of the country. Drake is the typical hero of this 
irregular warfare, which by degrees merged into the formal con- 
flict of which the defeat of the Armada was the crowning exploit. 



30 Francis Drake. [CH. II. 

The third course, the sober method of exploration and 
'**• Gilbert settlement, is associated with the names of 

and Frobisher: , 

colonisation Frobisher, Gilbert, and Raleigh. 

and explora- 
tion. 

Francis Drake was born in or about the year 1545, of a 
Francis family of Devonshire yeomen whose home lay 

Drake. near Tavistock. His father had been ruined 

and driven from his native county by an outbreak of Catholic 
fanaticism in the west, and, as an apprentice of a small 
Channel coasting vessel, young Francis Drake entered upon 
life through a very hard school. He had been thrown into the 
thick of Wyatt's insurrection. The fierce penalties which 
followed upon this rising in Kent, and the stories of Spanish 
persecutions which met him as he called at Dutch ports, com- 
bined to implant an implacable hatred of the Catholic and 
of the Spaniard, which makes Drake in his earlier period the 
typical figure of the west-country sea-rover. He was a cousin 
of John Hawkins, and at the age of 2 1 he was risking his life 
in West Indian waters, probably in one of Hawkins' ships 
(1566-1567). Hawkins, who found young Francis Drake a 
thorough seaman, brave, adventurous, loyal, gave him the 
command of the "Judith," a barque of 50 tons, in the 
adventure which met with the disaster of San Juan de Ulua. 
The perfidy of the Spanish admiral and the ruthless cruelties 
which were afterwards wreaked upon its victims explain and may 
perhaps justify the lifelong rancour with which Drake pursued 
the Spanish power upon the seas. From this time (1568) to 
the day of his death in 1596 Drake was engaged in unceasing 
warfare with Spain. 

Elizabeth and her Government were for the first 1 7 years of 
Drake and tn ^ s period at peace with Philip; but it is 

the irregular characteristic of this first period of national 

warinths . . ,„ . . . . ,. _ , 

Spanish expansion, as it was still of the middle of the 

indies. 18th century, that a state of warfare between 

two nations in the Indies or in America was quite consistent 



1558 — i6o3-] His Expedition of 1572. 31 

with outward amity in Europe. It is important that we should 
clearly realise the doctrine which was tacitly accepted by 
European states until a much later period than that of Drake : 
viz. that the principles of international dealings and the comity 
of nations did not, unless expressly stipulated for, apply to the 
new world of America and the East. Peace between Elizabeth 
and Philip, friendly relations between James I. and Holland, 
did not preclude open conflict between their subjects in the 
Indies. Trade rights existed between England and Spain, but 
they did not extend to America. A merchantman depended 
upon its own armament for protection and its captain took 
little heed of colonial monopolies not backed by force. It 
was, in truth, recognised that the arm of the State was too 
weak either to control or to defend its subjects beyond its 
own immediate boundaries. Drake's adventure therefore was 
irregular in the sense that the voyages of the East India 
Company were forty years later, but in neither case were they 
'piratical,' nor did they then, as they would now, involve of 
necessity a formal rupture of peaceful relations. 

Drake seems now to have entered, though not avowedly, 
the service of the Queen's Admiralty. The most critical 
period (1570) in the national relations with Spain was ap- 
proaching, and, at a moment when the independence of the 
nation seemed at stake, the Queen could not afford to disown 
her most daring or most experienced captains. 

In 157 1 Drake is again in West Indian waters, preparing 
for overt war or for private reprisals as circumstances might 
subsequently determine. In the spring of the following year, 
when the final rupture with Spain seemed inevitable, Drake, 
with the secret connivance of the Queen and of the Admiralty, 
set sail from Plymouth. His two ships and their crews were 
especially equipped and armed for the object in view, which 
was to prove how the offensive power of Spain could be cut at 
the root by the interception of the Peruvian treasure on its 
passage across the Isthmus of Panama. 



32 He plans a venture to the Pacific. [CH. II. 

Within the limits of this voyage (May 1572-August 1573) 
The voyage are comprised perhaps the most exciting of all 
of 1572. the exploits of English adventure in Spanish 

seas. The treasure convoy was successfully plundered; the 
towns of the Spanish main were raided ; 200 trading vessels 
were attacked and despoiled. Drake had moreover looked upon 
the Pacific Ocean. The terror inspired by the French corsairs 
thirty years before was renewed. Philip felt himself helpless ; 
he had no organised navy, and could with difficulty provide an 
escort for the yearly voyages of his treasure ships. Drake too 
had learnt, as Hawkins before him, that the wealth of Spain 
was the easy prize of a bold, well-planned campaign carried out 
in the Western seas. He arrived in Plymouth in August 1573 
with a most profitable spoil, to find that the relations of 
Elizabeth and Philip were now as cordial as eighteen months 
before they had been strained. 

In accordance with the policy of the Queen Drake's exploit 
is now disavowed, but he is carefully kept in sight. He is 
mysteriously engaged, still harrying the Spaniard, off the Irish 
coast; he joins Essex some time in 1575, and two years later is 
organising a new venture to the West. He saw 
ofthe voytgV the Q ueen herself. Her attitude towards Spain 
into the Pacific once more offered opportunities to men of Drake's 
stamp. The Queen spoke of being revenged 
on Philip 'for divers injuries that I have received,' declaring 
that Drake was the ' only man who might do this exploit.' To 
which Drake answered, 'that the only way was to annoy him in 
the Indies,' and thereupon he sketched the plan of the raid into 
the South seas which had been his dream since, five years before, 
he had from "a peak in Darien" beheld, first amongst English- 
men, the broad Pacific stretching to Cathay. Cecil, as usual, 
was to know nothing of the exploit. He had still the same 
repugnance to irregular adventures, for which the Government 
might at any time be called to account whilst powerless to 
control their conduct. England seemed once more on the 



1558 — 1603.] Its equipment. 33 

brink of open war with Spain, when in November 1577 
Drake sailed from Plymouth for an unknown destination. 

His departure and his destination had been kept a pro- 
found secret, but three people at least were in close touch 
with his proceedings : they were the Earl of Leicester, 
Walsingham (the Secretary of State), and the Queen herself, 
for all of these were partners in Drake's enterprise and had 
personally contributed to its equipment. No word was 
received from him until his ship anchored off Plymouth Bay 
on September 26, 1580. 

Meantime he had performed an exploit which determined 
the entire policy of Elizabeth's reign, and indirectly therefore 
the course of English history since. 

Drake's voyage of circumnavigation is, for various reasons, 
worthy of being regarded as the most striking and most 
characteristic of Elizabethan adventures. A brief study of it 
enables us to understand not a few of the typical features of 
the daring voyages of exploration, trade and reprisal which fill 
so large a space in our subject. 

The equipment of the enterprise first deserves notice. 
Drake himself sailed in the "Pelican," renamed 
the " Golden Hind," of 100 tons, carrying 18 m ^ a t . equip " 
pieces of cannon carefully chosen for their range 
and accuracy. With him sailed a galleasse of 80 tons, a 
barque of 30 tons, a store ship of 50 tons, and the "Benedict," 
a small pinnace of 15 tons, all armed with artillery. The 
crews, trained to arms, numbered 150. Drake was accom- 
panied in his own ship by some 15 gentlemen cadets, who 
joined him to gain experience and from love of adventure. 
Amongst them was one Thomas Doughty, whom Drake was 
brought to suspect of incitement to mutiny and of treachery, 
and ultimately to try and execute on the high seas. Doughty's 
conduct seems to have implicated some great personage 
at home, possibly Burleigh, who may well have desired 
to prevent Drake from provoking Spain by an organised 

w. e. 3 



34 Drakes objects. [CH. II. 

corsair raid and have taken secret means to thwart the ex- 
pedition. 

The seriousness of Drake's purpose is further proved by 
the provision that was made for the repair and refitting of the 
ships in remote seas ; by the supply of small arms and weapons 
suitable for boarding an enemy's ship or for landing parties 
in force ; and by the dignity and state with which Drake, as 
the commander of an expedition under what was practically 
Royal sanction, surrounded himself on board. 

Drake's object was twofold. In the first place he was 
determined to penetrate into that Pacific Sea 
jects? ke S ° b " which was maintained by the Spaniards as their 
own exclusive waters. The route by the Strait 
of Magellan had proved so perilous to navigators that it had 
come to be regarded as impracticable. Spain felt herself 
absolutely secure in the possession of the coast line from 
Mexico to Chile, without the need of guarding it by one single 
ship of war. Into this mare clausum (closed waters) Drake 
had, since his glimpse of it from Darien, been bent upon 
penetrating, for there, as he had learnt, could the sinews of 
the Spanish power be most surely cut asunder ; and this view 
he had urged upon Elizabeth and her ministers. But beyond 
this we find him already contemplating the more statesmanlike 
view of acquiring in the Queen's name fresh territories in the 
regions north of the Spanish settlements, and, if it were pos- 
sible, of opening out a return route to Europe by the north 
of the continent. Drake is no longer merely the reckless 
captain satisfied to plunder and harass his old enemy the 
Spaniard of the Inquisition, he is henceforth the clear-sighted 
exponent of a new policy of national expansion. 

From the Cape de Verde Islands Drake made for the 

Brazilian coast, sighting land in the neighbour- 

voytge! e ° fthe hood of Rio Grande do Sul. In storms which 

beset them along the coasts to the south of the 

River Plate the ships of the squadron were more than once 



1558 — 1603.] His course. 35 

scattered, to the great hindrance of the voyage. There, too, 
the incident of the treachery of Doughty reached its grim 
termination. On August 20th, 1578, they sighted the Straits. 
On the 24th, landing upon the largest island in the passage, 
Drake solemnly proclaimed it English territory in the name of 
the Queen. After a most dangerous navigation open water 
was reached on September 10th, and Drake had realised his 
vow. Then occurred the greatest disaster of the voyage. 
One ship foundered in a north-easterly gale, which seems to 
have continued without intermission for nearly three weeks. 
The " Elizabeth," Drake's second vessel, was driven back upon 
the Straits, and, not sighting the "Golden Hind," ultimately 
sailed home across the Atlantic. Drake was thus left in the 
Pacific to carry out his enterprise with one ship alone. He 
had meanwhile discovered by accident that Tierra del Fuego 
was an island — not as had hitherto been imagined part of 
the great Antarctic mainland : a fact of first importance in 
the history of Pacific navigation. 

On December 5th, 1578, he was off the little settlement of 
Valparaiso, and here, more than a year after his departure 
from Plymouth, for the first time came into touch with the 
Spanish masters of the coast. In the harbour 
lay a trading vessel of which Drake made an denng of" the 
easy prize. In the warehouses of the port he Spanish trea- 

J r t r sure ships. 

found stores of gold and silver, and, what were 
not less welcome, of fresh provisions. Coasting northwards, 
Drake explored each inlet in the hope of rejoining his missing 
consort the " Elizabeth," picking up an occasional prize of 
silver by the way. 

At Callao di Lima Drake had news which sent him north- 
ward again at the utmost speed. The great treasure ship of 
the Pacific had sailed a fortnight before with the yearly pro- 
duce of the Peruvian province. Heavily laden, practically 
unarmed, neither built nor rigged for speed, Drake counted 
upon overhauling her before she could reach Panama, where 

3—* 



36 Drake and the N.-W. Passage. [CH. II. 

her precious freight would be stored pending its transport 
across the Isthmus. The prize was secured without resist- 
ance and one main object of Drake's voyage accomplished. 
The "Golden Hind" was henceforward literally ballasted with 
silver, the total amount of the treasure in jewels and precious 
metals amounting to perhaps one million and a half of our 
money. In spite of pursuit, Drake, by the aid of a captured 
pilot and of charts which he had discovered on one or the 
other of his prizes, made the coast of Costa Rica and after- 
wards of California. 

He found that the Spanish mariners in the Pacific were 
Attempt to convinced that, owing to a north-easterly trend 
find the North- G f the American coast, a passage was available 
from the from a point somewhat north of San Francisco 

Pacific side. mt0 fa e Atlantic at Baccalaos (or Labrador). 
But having information from his prisoners of the route across 
the Pacific to the Philippines, Drake was already drawn to 
contemplate a return by the Asiatic seas, which by his no- 
tions could not be far distant. Meantime, being determined 
to explore the secret of a north-easterly return, he continued 
his northerly course to some point now impossible to fix, 
but probably off the Vancouver coast. The absence of any 
easterly trend, and persistent mists, fogs and storms thwarted 
his purpose. In a bay to the north of San Francisco Drake 
anchored about the middle of June 1579. His purpose was to 
attempt the return journey by the Spice Islands and the 
Indian Ocean. A month is spent in cleaning the hull of 
his one remaining ship, in refitting and provisioning; but 
his detention is marked by an incident of great significance. 
The Indians of North California, innocent as yet of the greed 
and cruelty of the Spaniard, welcomed the English crew with 
friendliness, and indeed with marks of religious awe. Drake's 
invariable humanity towards the native peoples enabled him 
to win the confidence of the Indian chiefs. They claimed 
the protection of Drake and his sovereign, and in the name 



1 5 58 — 1603.] His return by the Pacific. 17 

of Elizabeth he took formal possession of their territory, to 
which he gave the name of New Albion, proclamation 
mindful, as he says, "of what honour and of the English 

' J ' m sovereignty 

profit it might bring to our country in time over New 
to come and to the use of her most excellent f or n\a", june^ 
Majesty, he took the sceptre, crown and dignity x 579- 
of the said country into his hand." A monument was set up 
to mark the possession. 

On July 26th, 1579, the Pacific voyage was begun. Sixty- 
eight days they were out of sight of land. They 
first touched the Pelew Islands, and after sighting t he* Pacific" 
the Philippines, made land at Ternate in the 
Spice Islands. They were now within the limits of the Portu- 
guese sphere. 

Drake at once discusses with the Sultan of the island a 
treaty of alliance which should give England a foothold in 
Eastern seas. But Drake was anxious to be home again. 
A small island off Celebes served him for repairing and 
provisioning his ship and for refreshing his men, though 
the dangers of navigation in the Java seas nearly proved 
disastrous to the ship, its crew, and its freight. However, by 
good seamanship and good fortune he was at last enabled 
to steer a course into the open sea, and after touching at Java, 
where he had news of European ships hovering within in- 
convenient distance, he made for the Cape passage by a 
southerly route. At the end of September 1580 he was 
sighted off Plymouth Sound. 

The importance of Drake's voyage of circumnavigation 
should be carefully seized. In the first place 
it presents to us most of the characteristic typicai V of agC 
features of the Elizabethan voyage of adven- Elizabethan 
ture; such as the smallness of the craft em- 
ployed ; the reliance placed upon first-class seamanship ; upon 
extreme care in preparation, equipment, rigging and arma- 
ment ; the provision made for repair and refit ; the presence 



38 Significance of the voyage. [CH. II. 

of skilled artisans, cartographers, gunners. We note further 
the difficulty of keeping ships together in foul weather; the 
delay in making for the rendezvous agreed upon; the risk 
of mutiny; danger from hostile natives; trouble due to the 
need of watering and provisioning, and from diseases peculiar 
to long voyages and tropical climates. In that century every 
voyage added something to the stock of geographical know- 
ledge, and Drake had penetrated farther south, and, on the 
west coast at least, farther north, than any European navi- 
gator had succeeded in doing. He had, like almost every 
navigator, kept before him the vision of the North- West Pas- 
sage ; he had attempted to reach the Indies by the west, and 
for the first time had succeeded. The voyage is typical, too, 
of the irregular warfare with the Spaniard which marks all 
maritime adventure of the period. It has ceased to be mere 
reprisal; it is systematic, business-like, humane as regards 
life and liberty, and, though tinged with peculiar humour, 
is marked by strong and sincere religious feeling. Drake's 
evangelical fervour is excited by the cruelties of the Inqui- 
sition at Lima and the unholy living of its instruments. 

But the voyage has a special character of its own : it 
. j marks a definite stage in the development of 
importance of English policy. 

the voyage. First, it was a determined attempt to force 

an open rupture with Spain, and Walsingham, not less than 
Drake, regarded it in this light from its inception. Burleigh 
for the same reason did his best to thwart it. Elizabeth, as 
usual, hoped to share its profit without paying its proper price. 

Secondly, it was the first successful attempt of many to 
undermine the Spanish power by seizing its supplies of trea- 
sure. Hitherto the sea-rovers had mainly confined themselves 
to plundering the Spanish trader. Drake, now improving upon 
his exploit of 1575, attacks the Spanish Government monopoly 
itself, for the whole production and transport of precious metals 
was the exclusive privilege of the Spanish Crown. 



1558 — 1603.] Gilbert and colonisation. 39 

Thirdly, Drake had revealed once more the helplessness 
of Spain at sea, and English seamen had now acquired that 
contempt for the courage and resource of the Spanish sailor 
which they never lost. 

Fourthly, the achievement which left the sharpest impress 
was perhaps the treaty with the Sultan of the Spice Islands. 
The staid merchant regarded spices as safer merchandise 
than the bullion of prize-ships, and it is undoubtedly true 
that Drake's reports of the untold wealth of the Moluccas, 
Celebes and Java gave the first impulse to the trade of 
London with the East, whilst his agreement with Ternate 
formed a useful instrument of diplomacy. 

Lastly, for the first time in our history, a native people 
upon another continent was received formally within the do- 
minion of the Queen. Frobisher was about the same time 
acquiring uninhabitable tracts in Arctic seas. Drake felt that 
he was establishing a sovereignty which should enable England 
to rival Spain on her own grounds. The action of Drake in 
New Albion had indeed no result, but it indicates for the first 
time the presence of broader aims than those of mere reprisal, 
and must be viewed in conjunction with the deliberate pro- 
jects which were taking shape in the minds of Gilbert and his 
friends at home. 

For in Gilbert, Raleigh, and their friends we find the same 
restless temper of the age taking definitely the 
direction of expansion through colonization. phrey^iibert. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a Devonshire man of 
family and estate, who combined in true Elizabethan fashion a 
taste for learning and travel with skill in arms, had devoted 
himself especially to the study of geography and navigation; 
beginning, as a scholar of his day must, with the Greeks and 
Romans, he passed on to the Venetians, the Florentines and 
the French. Living as he did in a time of activity, and 
anxious to turn his enquiries, statesmanlike, to practical ac- 
count, his researches issue in definite projects. In 1565 he 



40 Gilbert's " Discourse :" [CH. II. 

is found promoting a scheme for a North-West Passage to 
Cathay, under royal protection. A few years later he sums 
up his arguments for, (a) the practicability of the route, and 

His"Dis (^) * ts P°titi ca l an d commercial advantage to 
course : " the State, in his famous " Discourse to prove a 
about 1575. passage by the North-west to Cathaia and the 
East Indies." The possibility of such a route Gilbert sets 
himself to prove by reasons wholly unscientific, but typical of 
the age, based upon the "nature of things" and upon un- 
tested traditions of travellers. When he comes to speak of 
the advantages of such an enterprise we are upon much 
more interesting ground. The " Discourse " sets forth the 
following positions : 

1. The discovery of a route free from the interference 

of "any prince living, Christian or heathen," 
propositions. wu ^ enable England to secure a share of the 
infinite wealth of the East. 

2. The North-west route from England to the East, being 
so much shorter than any open to other countries of Europe, 
will enable us not only to compete with Portuguese or Spanish 
traders, but further 

3. We should be in a position to trade with regions not 
yet reached by Europeans. 

4. "Also we might inhabit part of those countries, and 
settle there such needy people of our country which now 
trouble the commonwealth, and through want here at home 
are forced to commit outrageous offences, whereby they are 
daily consumed with the gallows." 

5. Such trade and settlement would be aided by the com- 
parative nearness of these regions : 

6. Which would provide a market for the large produc- 
tion of English cloth, making us thus less dependent on the 
demand from European countries. 

7. English shipping and seamanship will be greatly 
benefited, to the advantage of national defence,, 



I55& — i6c>3-] Aims of colonisation. 41 

8. New industries may spring up at home to supply 
articles suitable to the needs of Eastern nations and various 
peoples to be found on the voyage thither ; thus providing 
employment " for vagabonds and such-like idle persons." 

We note that the arguments here brought forward are 
partly political, — the expansion of the nation and the strength- 
ening of the navy; partly economic, — the opening of fresh 
markets and the consequent increase of employment; and 
that they contemplate not trade only, but the settlement 
of English citizens in lands at present unoccupied by Euro- 
peans. Now this latter point, to which special attention 
must be directed, is further insisted upon by 
other of Gilbert's friends and contemporaries, an/Hay^s 
notably by Peckham (1583) and by Hayes upon Coionisa- 
(1583), who were both closely associated with 
him in his enterprise. 

Peckham, who has Newfoundland in his mind, dwells like 
Gilbert on the national advantages to be gained by colonisa- 
tion : the strengthening of the navy ensured by ample supply 
of shipbuilding material, by the acquisition of the great fishery, 
and by the seamanship there trained ; nor does he overlook the 
motive of national pride in empire. But he dwells, as Gilbert 
did not, on the immediate inducements to settlers : for the 
gentry there are all the attractions of country life ; for the farmer 
unlimited lands, most profitable for grazing and corn-growing ; 
for the trader furs, skins and timber; for the fisherman the 
most famous banks in the known world. The natives will be 
converted, civilised, and taught agriculture and the mechanical 
arts. Hayes attaches the greatest weight to the religious 
motive, "which must be the chief motive of such as shall 
make any attempt that way." He urges that the obligation not 
less than the privilege lies with England to colonise the 
American continent north of Florida, on grounds of prior right 
of discovery, of geographical situation, of the fitness of national 
character, of economic need arising from the overplus of 



4 2 National and Economic. [ch. II. 

population due to long-continued peace; "it seeming 
probable that the countries lying north of Florida God hath 
reserved to be reduced unto Christian civility by the English 
nation." He especially rebukes " the fault and foolish sloth in 
many of our nation choosing rather to live indirectly (i.e. 
dependent upon others) and very miserably to live and die 
within this realm pestered with inhabitants, than to adventure 
as becometh men to obtain an habitation in those remote lands 
in which Nature very prodigally doth minister unto men's 
endeavours." 

These discourses, which fall within the years 15 75-1584, 
reveal to us the motives which were actuating 
for Coionisa " a notable group of Englishmen. When we 
tion as under- examine their arguments in detail we find that 
reign of Eliza- they represent the chief grounds upon which 
beth * colonisation has been encouraged ever since. 

We may sum up the reasons alleged for the policy of settlement, 
or plantation, as it was then called, under the following heads : 

First : National policy. This country by right of discovery 
and of geographical situation has a natural claim to the settle- 
ment of the temperate regions of the West, which are at present 
unoccupied by Europeans. Such possession will secure to 
England a counterpoise to the power of Spain ; will tend to 
an increase in the number of mariners and of ships, and to 
greater skill in seamanship ; will further strengthen the nation 
by rendering us independent of European supplies of timber, 
cordage and all other raw materials of shipbuilding. So deeply 
is the conviction implanted that the wealth of England and her 
safety must be sought upon the seas. Nor is there wanting a 
distinct note of aspiration for an imperial position to rival that 
of Spain. 

Secondly : The economic condition of England. A century 
of comparative peace had tended to a growth of population 
outstripping that of manufacture. Hence settlement will pro- 
vide employment for the sons of well-to-do houses, as well as 



1558 — 1603.] Commercial and Religious. 43 

for peasantry and an increasing class of "sturdy" vagrants, 
paupers, and even criminals. Already we notice the mistaken 
belief which so seriously hampered the efforts at colonisation 
for two centuries, namely, that the failures and outcasts of the 
mother country were good enough material for the critical 
work of founding a new state. 

Thirdly : Commercial advantages. All classes of the com- 
munity will find plentiful occupation in a new home. A 
demand will spring up for English goods, notably for woollens, 
and the needs of native populations may even create new 
trades in the mother country, which will naturally retain the 
monopoly of such commerce. Precious metals may be. con- 
fidently looked for, and the store of gold and silver in the 
mother country increased rather than diminished. Articles, 
such as hides, spices, silks and sugar now imported from our 
rivals may be produced by English subjects settled in English 
lands, whilst the produce of the Newfoundland fishery will be 
secured to English fishermen. 

Fourthly : Religious motive. The " compassion of poor 
infidels," who should be brought to Christianity and settled 
industry, was in this first age of colonisation a more prominent 
motive than it was later. It was not less necessary that the 
native should be saved from the errors of Rome, which would 
be his inevitable fate if England were forestalled by Spain. 

The discourses of Gilbert and Peckharh do not clearly 
distinguish between projects of settlement and 
voyages of exploration. The two will go hand an ^ C expi£ra- 
in hand. To discover the North-west Passage tion of ne . w 
and to establish a short route by the Behring routes go hand 
Strait (Strait of Anian) to the China seas, far inhand - 
removed from the sphere of Spanish or Portuguese empire, 
was, as we know, the goal of all Elizabethan enterprise. It 
long continued to haunt the imagination of the practical East 
India merchant, and many years were to elapse before the 
leaders of English colonisation finally shook themselves free 



44 The French and the Spaniard [CH. II. 

from its influence. To-day the dream of an English route 
by the north-west is, however differently in form, yet in 
actual fact, realised by the railway from Halifax to Van- 
couver. 

The mainland of America, north of the Spanish province 
of Mexico, was at this period practically unoccupied by any 
European people. The first definite attempt at settlement 
had proceeded from the French. In 1534 Jacques Cartier, 
a sea-captain of St Malo, penetrated as far as 
pean settle- the mouth of the St Lawrence, and coasted 

America^ 0rth along the snores of New Brunswick. In the 
continent, following year he ascended the river as far as 

^The^ench Montreal ("the royal mount "). Five years later 
on the st (!54o) an organised expedition, including a 

body of intending settlers, and a military force, 
with Cartier as captain-general, set sail. A site was chosen 
close to Quebec ; but owing to jealousies between the sea- 
faring and the military element in command disagreements 
arose, Cartier sailed away and before long the settlement itself 
broke up. The reasons are not quite clear, but we hear of 
bad administration and inadequate defence against Indian 
attacks. But whatever the actual causes, and our own 
experiences in Virginia later on will suggest more than one 
explanation, the colony died out soon after 1540, and at the 
time of Elizabeth's accession no European settlement survived 
upon the American mainland north of Mexico. For half a 
century French interests in that region were limited to a share 
in the Newfoundland fishery, an industry which attracted 
every summer the more adventurous fishermen from Western 
Europe, for whom it constituted a most instructive school in 
The French ocean seamanship. The Spaniards had equally 
and Spaniards failed to make good their footing in the vast 
unoccupied continent north of the Mexican 
Gulf. We have seen that the Caribbean seas were the 
true centre of Spanish interests in the New World, and 



1558 — 1603.] in North America. 45 

to protect them and the wealth they concealed from inter- 
ference of other powers was the constant pre-occupation of 
Philip II. 

Wisely therefore did the Spanish officials discourage settle- 
ment upon the great northern lands. Journeys of exploration 
had been made through the south-eastern region, which 
vaguely bounded received the name of Florida. But the 
Spanish adventurer was confronted by natives of a more 
vigorous type than those whom he had so easily enslaved 
farther south. Florida was fertile and could readily be made 
productive. But the Spaniard founded agricultural settlements 
only where slave labour could be had ; and the North American 
Indians quickly shewed that they could not be attacked with 
impunity, much less dispossessed or enslaved. There were 
indeed rumours of golden cities and a way to the South seas, 
but all attempts of Spain to explore or settle the territory lying 
between the Atlantic and the Mississippi ended in disaster. 
The most noteworthy venture of discovery, that of de Soto in 
1559, failed, partly at least, in consequence of the cruelties of 
his followers towards the natives; he himself, a romantic 
figure, died in the forests, and a straggling remnant only 
reached the Gulf of Mexico. Of efforts at genuine planta- 
tion there is no record ; and perhaps the Spaniard was 
already spoilt for the arduous and patient work of true coloni- 
sation. 

With de Soto's failure Spain might possibly have finally 
abandoned the eastern sea-board, had not religious hatred 
supplied a new stimulus. In 1562 a body of French Hugue- 
nots sought, like the English Independents, sixty years later, 
freedom for faith and worship in the new world. They 
established themselves on the coast of Florida at the mouth 
of the St John's river. But their experience was not more 
favourable than that of their predecessors on the St Lawrence. 
They quarrelled with their Indian neighbours ; they neglected 
to sow crops for their own support ; they shewed, as Hawkins 



46 Huguenots in Florida. [ch. II. 

reported, a marked want of energy and self-helpfulness. " They 
would not take the pains so much as to fish in the river 
before their doors, but would have all things put in their 
mouths." 

Frenchmen have rarely been content to find a permanent 
home in a foreign land. It needed but little to break up the 
settlement. Next year they were succeeded by a larger party 
of emigrants ; the more adventurous desired only to go in 
search of the fabled city ; others mutinied, then abandoned the 
colony and took to buccaneering in the Indian seas. The 
leaders neglected the commonest needs of the plantation, 
which but for fresh aid from home must have perished. But 
this second effort at colonisation on the part of French 
adventurers was destined to a more tragic end. The story 
of it throws no little light on the feeling of French and English 
Protestants towards Spanish rule. The French Court in its 
bitter zeal for the Church warned Philip II of the existence of 
the struggling Huguenot settlement. The Spanish Govern- 
ment had been startled by the appearance of Hawkins in the 
Western seas ; but a heretic and foreign community established 
at the very gateways of their own Empire demanded instant 
action. An expedition was despatched from Cadiz. The 
settlement was stormed and utterly destroyed. Such men as 
were captured were hanged from surrounding trees bearing 
each a label that they were hung there " Not as Frenchmen but 
as Lutherans." This outrage sent a thrill through France. A 
fierce revenge was planned; a daring young French soldier 
led on his own account an expedition against the Spaniards 
who occupied the rebuilt fort. These in turn became the 
victims of a surprise, and the Spanish soldiers were hanged as 
the Frenchmen had been two years before: the trees were 
marked with this inscription, "Not as Spaniards but as 
Murderers." The avengers made good their return to 
France. 

Spain, however, retained a place of arms on the Florida 



1558 — 1 603. J Frobisher and the N.-W. Passage. 47 

coast, a post of observation against intruders. But when 
Englishmen between 1570 — 1585 turned their thoughts to the 
task in which the French had twice so signally failed they 
found no European settlers to dispute with them the title to 
the Atlantic seaboard between St Augustine and the Northern 
seas. For the time the French had failed. Their effort had 
been ill-conceived and ill-carried out. For them too the day 
of colonisation was not yet come. 

The first attempt to realize Gilbert's project was led by 
Frobisher, who in 1576 — 78, undertook three voyages for the 
discovery of a North-West Passage. He, like other adventurers, 
was furnished with funds by a group of merchants who were 
incorporated as the " Company of Cathay." He 

, a 1 v The North. 

was empowered to annex and occupy territory west Passage: 
in the name of the Queen, to search for pre- Frobisher, 
cious metals and to open up a practicable route 
through the Strait of Anian to the Pacific Ocean. As an 
instance of the effort after expansion characteristic of the time 
Frobisher's voyages are of great interest. But their practical 
result was worthless. Labrador and Greenland, which he took 
to be the borderland of the continents of America and Asia, 
offered no prospect of settlement, although on the shore 
of Frobisher's Bay he (July, 1576) proclaimed the Queen's 
sovereignty. Nor was his search for "a sea passage to the 
West" of more avail. Frobisher, like other navigators, was 
hard to convince of the existence of an impassable ice-barrier 
between the northern waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. Like 
other explorers also he imagined a new world in which gold 
and silver were common constituents of the soiL On reaching 
Meta Incognita, the inhospitable site of his landing, his first 
care was to lade his ships with earth which his experts assured 
him was full of precious mineral, but which when tested on his 
return proved to be entirely destitute of value. Frobisher, 
too, although a brave and versatile seaman, had none of the 
qualities requisite to the leader of a colony. 



48 Gilberts colony of Newfoundland. [CH. II. 

Meantime, after several failures to carry out his projects, 
Gilbert and Gilbert had succeeded in procuring a 'patent' or 
Newfound- commission under Royal Seal in June, 1578. 

English S By its terms Gilbert is granted free liberty and 
Colony, 1583. license to discover "such remote, heathen and 
barbarous lands not actually possessed of any Christian prince 
or people as to him shall seem good, there to inhabit and 
remain and to take as many subjects of the Queen as shall 
willingly accompany him." Such lands shall form part of the 
Queen's dominions, and its population be of her allegiance. 
Its governors shall not offend against the peace which the 
Queen from time to time maintains with other sovereigns. 
Subject to one-fifth of all gold and silver ores the freehold of 
the soil and all its produce shall belong absolutely to Gilbert 
or his representatives. He shall exercise over all settlers a 
jurisdiction " as near as conveniently may be " to the laws of 
England, which shall include the exercise of public worship 
according to the Book of Common Prayer. 

As a first step towards realizing his project, Gilbert created 
a joint-stock company in the usual manner. Sir Francis 
Walsingham was the chairman, and the shareholders were 
merchants and others, mainly citizens of Southampton, which 
was thus made the home trading port of the new colony. Not 
until 1583 did Gilbert succeed in landing a body of settlers 
upon the American mainland. On August 5th of that year his 
three ships with a company of intending colonists anchored 
in the harbour of St John's, Newfoundland. Summoning all 
the inhabitants and traders then in port he read the Queen's 
patent, and, in her name, took possession of the town and the 
territory within a radius of 200 leagues. He himself claimed 
the freehold of the soil, admitting all then settled on the land 
as tenants of himself and subjects of the Queen. The oath of 
allegiance was administered, the arms of England erected. 
Thus the first English colony in the true sense was proclaimed, 
and England took the first, though as it proved a halting, step 
towards territorial Empire. 



1558 — 1603.] Raleigh's project of Virginia. 49 

Gilbert had organised his expedition in view of definite 
settlement, and in the hope of a friendly arrangement with the 
native tribes. He had started with a company of 200 men, 
amongst whom were craftsmen likely to be useful in a new 
settlement. But in spite of the favourable promise of the 
country, discontent and sickness compelled Gilbert to return, 
though with the confident determination to repeat his voyage 
on a larger scale and with better preparation in the following 
year. But on the return home the small ship in which he was 
sailing foundered in the night with all on board. 

Gilbert's work, however, was not allowed to lapse. His 
place was taken by Sir Walter Raleigh, who now enters upon 
the scene of colonial adventure. In 1584 he 
obtains a new patent on the lines of Gilbert's „. Rale ! gh a " d 

f Virginia, 1584. 

and at once equips an expedition of exploration. 
Raleigh's captains instead of making the bleak coast of New- 
foundland touched the American coast at the island Roanoke, 
off the shore of the present State of North Carolina. There 
Barlow and Amidas, as agents of Raleigh, landed, and took 
formal possession in the Queen's name. They returned with 
a glowing report of the natural fertility of the soil, the charm 
of the climate, and above all encouraging rumours amongst the 
natives of gold and pearls. The Queen herself suggested the 
name Virginia for the new discovery. On the 9th April, 1585, 
an expedition for settlement put to sea. 108 settlers had 
volunteered ; the fleet of seven ships was under the command 
of Sir Richard Grenville; the colony was to be under the 
control of Lane. Grenville was a fighting sea-captain of 
Drake's type, without Drake's strenuous perseverance and in 
no way fitted for the sober work of plantation. Lane, too, was 
a man of true Elizabethan versatility, a courtier, a soldier of 
fortune, courageous, but restless and impatient of steady toil. 
The settlers themselves contained amongst them men who 
had "little understanding, less discretion, and more tongue 
than was needful or requisite." Others, again, were unwilling 
w. E. a 



§o // is finally abandoned. fcH. II. 

to face the hard fare and the primitive conditions of an un- 
settled country and disdained work which promised no speedy 
return. 

With this somewhat unlikely material Grenville landed on 
the mainland, to which the name of Virginia was extended. 
In the autumn the fleet returned to England, leaving Lane in 
charge of the settlers to winter in their new home. A fort 
had been built on the island of Roanoke for their security. 
The Indians, wrongfully provoked, were no longer friendly, 
means of subsistence were hard to procure. Lane, lured by 
reports of a gold mine, of pearl fishery and a strait leading to 
the South seas, endangered both his own exploring party and 
the garrison whom he had left behind. 

In June, 1586, Drake unexpectedly appeared off the coast on 
Failure of **is return from his great voyage to the West 
the Colony: its Indies of 1585. The settlers, hard pressed by the 
Indians, discouraged by the evident necessities 
of hard work, persuaded Drake to carry them one and all 
home with him to England. Early in July a relief expedition 
sent by Raleigh under the command of Grenville arrived at 
Roanoke to find the settlement deserted, and though he left 
behind him 15 of his company to maintain possession, 
Raleigh's first attempt at colonising America had failed. But 
his ardour was not to be damped. He made preparations for 
a strong permanent settlement. In 1587, 150 settlers, of whom 
17 were women, sailed under his auspices for Roanoke. A 
rudimentary government was constituted, and a "city" called 
after Raleigh's name planned. Once more the emigrants were 
reduced during the winter to dire straits. It was now the year 
of the Armada, and, though relief ships were dispatched by 
Raleigh, they failed to reach America. Raleigh now reluctantly 
abandoned his Virginian enterprise. His "patent" was trans- 
ferred to John White, who in 1589 started to join the colony, 
but yielding on the way to the temptation of buccaneering, 
arrived too late to save the settlers, of whom nothing was 



1558 — 1603.] Causes of failure. 51 

afterwards heard beyond a vague tradition of captivity and 
massacre at the hands of their Indian enemies. 

The first chapter in the history of English colonisation thus 
comes to an end. At the death of Elizabeth England pos- 
sessed beyond the Atlantic nothing more than dormant claims 
to territories vaguely defined in Newfoundland and Virginia, 
with yet more shadowy rights in Frobisher's Bay and New 
Albion. 

This was a time of experiment, of uncertain effort to attain 
an end not very clearly conceived. Amongst the men to 
whom these first attempts were due, some were thinking first 
of a shorter passage to the East, others of new markets for 
English goods amongst peaceful natives, others of the search 
for gold ; the more restless were on the watch for a privateering 
venture on their own account. The necessities of a community 
in a distant land were ill-understood, and the patient endurance 
needed for its success lacked a sufficient motive. The settler 
was disappointed, or grew weary of exile ; it was not difficult to 
admit a mistake and to return home. Englishmen of that age 
were not driven abroad by persecution, nor, in spite of the 
much talked of distress, by starvation ; they were not deported 
by Government against their will. The enterprise itself was a 
voluntary business adventure and not an affair of State. The 
Elizabethan State, indeed, was too weak to attempt such under- 
takings, and the work was of necessity left to individuals. 
Private citizens with their joint capital projected and fitted out 
the expeditions of Hawkins, Frobisher, and Raleigh. If the 
Queen or her ministers were associated in them it was purely 
in their private capacity. The " patent " or Charter from the 
Crown implied, indeed, sovereign rights, but neither State 
initiative nor administrative control. Elizabethan England was 
backward, poor and thinly peopled ; it was impossible for a 
responsible statesman like Burleigh to encourage the emigration 
of able-bodied men and women on a large scale, nor indeed 
was the right material forthcoming. Failing the discoveries of 

4—2 



52 Raleigh and Guiana. [CH. II. 

rich deposits of gold and silver the men whom Gilbert and 
Rale'gh wished to draw to Newfoundland and Virginia found 
stronger attraction in the chances of plunder on Spanish seas. 
For settlement implied patience, endurance, and, at best, the 
slow attainment of a modest standard of comfort. But the 
young men who followed Drake and Raleigh were discontented 
with all that was commonplace ; they had a restless curiosity, a 
passion for adventure. So they went 

" Some to the wars to seek their fortune there, 
Some to discover islands far away, 
Some to the studious Universities." 

( Two Gentlemen of Verona!) 

But colonisation promised neither excitement, nor wealth, 
nor renown. Not until the peace with Spain (1604) and the 
failure of Raleigh's dreams had sobered men's spirits could the 
plodding work of settlement be taken up in earnest. By that 
time fresh motives were stirring amongst men of a different 
type from the brilliant leaders of Elizabethan adventure. 

Meantime we must admit that Raleigh had higher aims 

than most of the group to which he belonged. 
GSanafi595 Qd Sir Richard Grenville, for instance, his old 

colleague of 1585, was only truly happy when 
chasing and fighting the Spaniard on the high seas, and 
it was thus that he met his heroic death off the Azores 
in 1591- To Raleigh the Spanish war meant more than 
reprisal, more even than a sound method of national de- 
fence ; it was above all a means of securing territorial expan- 
sion. The glamour of ' empire ' had taken hold of him, but it 
was always an empire which should be peopled by men of 
English blood. Virginia had failed, partly by accident of the 
time. Might not Guiana succeed ? 

Guiana, the region between the Orinoco and the Amazon, 
was as yet unoccupied, though regarded as within the Spanish 
'sphere of influence.' In 1594 Raleigh sent out a trusted 
captain to examine the delta of the Orinoco. Next year he 



1558 — 1603.] T/te N.-W. Passage and John Davis. 53 

secured a royal patent empowering him "to offend and en- 
feeble the King of Spain and his subjects in his dominions to 
the uttermost," and further to subdue and 'plant' heathen 
lands unoccupied by Europeans. The High Admiral lent a 
ship, Cecil contributed money, Raleigh put his all into the 
venture, of which he took the lead in person. The Orinoco 
was explored for 300 miles. Raleigh brought home encourag- 
ing accounts of the fertility of the soil, with strange tales told 
by friendly Indians of human monsters, 

'men whose heads 
Do grow beneath their shoulders.' (Othello!) 
and still more exciting accounts of "the great and golden city 
of Manoa," whose King, it might be safely expected, "at the 
sight of a very small force would yield to her Majesty by com- 
position so many hundred thousand pounds yearly as should 
both defend (i.e. ward off) all enemies abroad and defray all 
expenses at home." Should he resist he was perfectly defence- 
less and could be easily conquered. But, though such wealth 
naturally makes the first appeal, " for health, good air, pleasure 
and riches Guiana excels all regions," and is well adapted to 
English settlement by "soldiers and gentlemen that are 
younger brethren and all captains and chieftains that want 
employment." But Elizabeth did not listen; the defence of 
the kingdom did not allow of distant ventures till Spain should 
be further crippled. Raleigh was in high command in the 
great expedition against Cadiz (1596) and in the less successful 
one against the Azores in the following year. But Guiana was 
henceforth the preoccupation of his remaining years and bore 
conspicuous part in the shameful tragedy of his death. 

Raleigh's pilot in the attack on the Azores (1597) was 
John Davis. He was one of the group of 

... . , ° r . The N.-W. 

seamen who gained experience and renown m passage, 
the hopeless search for the North-West passage J°£ a Davis > 
to the East. Davis made three voyages between 
the years 1585—7 of which full records are left to us. These 



54 The reasons for the search : political, [CH. II. 

reveal a man of intrepidity and skill as a mariner, and of that 
restless love of adventure so characteristic of his age. It is 
unnecessary for our purpose to follow the course of his explo- 
rations. He penetrated farther north than his great pre- 
decessor Martin Frobisher and like him gave his name to an 
important arm of the sea. With Frobisher he worthily heads 
the long roll of English mariners who with varying degrees of 
success but with equal zeal have endeavoured to force a way 
through the ice barriers of the arctic region of America. 

But it is more important to understand the motives 
Thear which during the 16th century and later directed 

ments: English maritime adventure to a possible new 

o i ca , route t0 t h e East. The discovery of the Cape 
of Good Hope had tended to the profit of the Portuguese 
monopoly and not to that of Europe at large. This trade 
monopoly was very stiffly maintained by a power whose real 
strength at sea was still further magnified by repute. The 
exclusive position of Portugal east of the Cape was practi- 
cally admitted by England, up to 1580, as resting upon right 
of occupation, which was assumed to be far more effective 
than it was in reality. Not until Drake's return in 1580, 
coinciding as it did with the transfer of Portuguese depen- 
dencies to Spain, were the eyes of English statesmen and 
traders opened to the true strength of that occupation. But 
the Portuguese navy was still reported strong in eastern waters, 
her ' carracks ' were huge and heavily armed. Moreover there 

were grave difficulties of navigation to be faced 
Navigation ^y an English merchantman venturing upon the 

Cape voyage. Portugal controlled — or claimed 
to do so — all practicable roadsteads and bays on the route, 
where ships' holds and keels could be cleaned, where shelter, 
fresh food and water could be obtained, matters essential 
to a long and trying voyage. Again, till late in Elizabeth's 
reign English captains seem to have been dependent upon 
Portuguese pilots, who were not to be trusted to handle 



T40KTH 







SOVTH 
Reduced FacsJmilb of Map published with the narrative of Frobisher's Voyages, 1578. 




\Mare (pacificun^ ^| 
Jiar (M. jur. pfyf 




Reduced Facsi 



To face /. 55 



1558 — 1 603. J nautical, and economic. 55 

foreign vessels in their own peculiar seas. To trade, 
then, by the Cape was a venture of great risk, and might 
involve fighting. This English traders of London or South- 
ampton were anxious to avoid, and, in their desire for strictly 
commercial methods, routes and markets, sought for access to 
'the infinite wealth' of the East by avenues which in virtue of 
discovery and of occupation might be recognised as rightfully 
English. Of the southern routes the African was closed by 
Portugal, the American by Spain, by its own natural terrors, 
and by sheer distance. The North-Eastern route and the 
land journey by Russia and Persia were either too costly or 
wholly impossible. There remained only the vast North 
Atlantic, which it was believed contained one or more hidden 
channels communicating directly with the China Sea, if indeed 
there did not exist a broad strait to the north of the continent 
corresponding to that which separated the southern half from 
the great Terra Australis extending to the Pole. Frobisher's 
map should be studied for the Elizabethan view of the problem 
of the North-West passage. 

In addition to reasons drawn from politics and from naviga- 
tion there was the convincing economic motive. 
The only product which England had to offer in 
exchange for foreign goods was woollen cloth of the heavier 
sorts. For this a market could only be found in cold, or at 
least temperate, regions, as for instance amongst the peoples of 
Cathaia, Tartary, or Japan. Further, in making the passage 
thither by the North-West, regions 'unoccupied by any Christian 
people ' would most likely be discovered, where English settlers 
and friendly savages, won by them to civilised customs {i.e. the 
wearing of English clothes), would be natural purchasers of the 
same commodity. In this case, and in this case only, the 
distressing necessity of exporting hard money to foreign 
countries in exchange for cargoes of spices, silk or dye-stuffs 
would be obviated, and the national and private gain alike be 
free of its most serious drawback. The strength of Spain was 



$6 The Tudor Navy. [CH. II. 

held to be due to the bullion which she so freely imported ; how 
then could England compete with her if she, on the contrary, 
exported gold? Thus in January, 1601, we find the East 
India Company resolving "to maintain the trade of the East 
Indies, if it be possible, by the transportation and vent of 
Cloth and other native commodities of this Realm without any 
money at all, or else so little as may be conveniently tolerated": 
"which monies and coin they could not prepare but with great 
difficulty and trouble and not without some mislike of the 
transportation of treasure out of the land." To this end the 
Court decides to attempt once more the discovery of a North- 
West passage by which they may attain the countries of 
Cathaia and China, " being of that temperature which in all 
likelihood will afford a most liberal vent of English cloths and 
kersies." 

The earlier voyages of exploration in the north-west Atlantic 
are thus associated with East Indian trade rather than with the 
extension of our interests on the American continent. Fro- 
bisher and Davis, like Francis Drake himself, were, in one 
aspect of their work, following clues by which Elizabethan 
enterprise felt its way to the true Indies. But the desired 
ocean route has never been discovered. The last year of 
Elizabeth's reign (1602-3) saw the Company's fleet trading for 
the first time in eastern waters, though the Queen was dead 
when the news of its success reached England : and the be- 
ginnings of the British power in the East are most conveniently 
reviewed in connection with the following period. 



The Rise of the Navy. 

The naval power of England in the modern sense dates 
M • from Henry VIII. He was perhaps the first 

The Tudor _,.,■' . r , r , 

Navy: Henry English statesman to perceive that the policy 
of England must in virtue of the sea barrier 



1558 — 1603.] The efforts of Henry VIII. 57 

which separated her from the Continent be mainly independent 
of European affairs. The loss of the French inheritance of 
previous centuries, the absence of blood relationship with 
foreign dynasties, the isolation of the English monarchy, due to 
the part taken by the country in the Reformation movement, 
all tended in the same direction. His sagacity led him to 
recognize the leading place which the Navy must occupy in 
national defence. There was a further reason for the creation 
of a standing naval force. The opening years of the century, as 
we have seen, were marked by a large increase in the sea- 
borne trade of the country. But foreign commerce was greatly 
hampered by the prevalence of piracy along the main routes 
of traffic. To patrol the seas, therefore, as well as to defend 
the coasts from invasion, were the twin objects of the early 
Tudor Navy. 

Henry was himself keenly interested in the details of naval 
requirements. He summoned William Hawkins 

* . Advance in 

of Plymouth, fresh from his voyages to Brazil, to naval design, 
consultation. He founded schools of seaman- circ " I54 °' 
ship on the Thames, on the Humber and on the Tyne. "Nearly 
every year marked some advance, some plan calculated to 
make the Navy a more effective fighting instrument " (Oppen- 
heim). But no step was of so great importance as the adop- 
tion from Venetian models of a new type of a trim fast-sailing 
ship-of-war. The Venetian galleon was modified to depend if 
necessary entirely upon sail, oars being practically discarded. 
Fifteen vessels of this type were constructed in the later years 
of Henry's reign. The 'galleasse,' as it was called, was usually 
a three or four-masted vessel of 250 tons burden, of narrow 
beam and low free-board, and was the swiftest and most 
effective fighting ship then designed. In the famous sea- 
fight of August 1545 the sailing galleasse proved invincible in 
conflict with the largest oared vessels of the French fleet. It is 
from this year that we may date the acknowledged superiority 
of England upon the seas. We associate then the birth of 



58 The Navy in 1558. [CH. II. 

the maritime instinct in English policy with the naval enterprise 
of Henry VIII. 

The Protector Somerset and Queen Mary were unable to 
maintain the Navy in adequate efficiency, 
the Navy. Philip indeed in 1554 took steps to increase 
1547—1570- t k e fighting power of the English fleet which he 
wished to see a useful instrument of Spanish policy. But the 
loss of Calais proved that the Navy had fallen sadly short in 
organisation, in seamanship, and in vessels, of the high standard 
left by Henry VIII. But still at the time of Elizabeth's 
accession the English fleet was admittedly the best in Europe 
although but 22 ships in all were found to be actually fit for sea. 
One of the first acts of Elizabeth's reign was the preparation of 
what we should now call a 'naval programme.' Small, easily- 
handled vessels of the galleon type were planned, barques, which 
were smaller ships of war of about 150 tons, were to be added, 
with still smaller galleys or pinnaces which were mainly adjuncts 
to larger craft. It is to be noticed also that with the increase 
of the mercantile marine the larger English merchantmen were 
usually built and armed with a view to their service in action. 
In 1558 forty-five such vessels were available. Elizabeth ex- 
tended a practice of Henry VIII in granting a bounty of five 
shillings a ton to the builders of vessels of over 100 tons 
burden. This subsidy was one cause of the rapid growth of 
the English merchant navy. It gave also to the Queen's 
Government a right to call in emergency for ships so built for 
national defence ; a system which we have seen revived in our 
own day. The larger merchantmen, however, of the time 
were slow-sailing vessels, very broad in beam — 'round-ships' 
they were called — and of little use in attack. Elizabeth found 
in them a cheap line of defence ; she owned one or two herself, 
and was ready to hire them out at a rent or to contribute them 
as her share in a voyage of adventure. The Admiralty was 
in 1559 organised for the first time as a State Department, 
and it is officially declared that "in these days the Navy is one 



1 55*^ — 1603/I Hawkins and Drake at the Admiralty. 59 

of the chiefest defences of this kingdom." The Lord High 
Admiral is henceforth a chief minister of the Crown. This 
early promise of Elizabeth's reign was scantily fulfilled. For 
ten years little or nothing was done to render the Navy 
efficient. Not till the perilous condition of politics in 1569-70 
startled them would Elizabeth and Cecil consent to the 
needful expenditure. 

A better era dawns with the appointment of John Hawkins 
as Treasurer of the Navy and contractor for the John Haw . 
building and repair of the Queen's ships. No kins, Treasurer 

i_ f t- j f 1 • 1 °f Navy 1575. 

one was better qualified for the practical duties Period of high 
of director of the Navy. His thorough know- efficienc y- 
ledge of seamanship, his acquaintance with foreign types of war- 
ship and of trading vessel, his unique opportunities of 
obtaining skilled advice in designing rigging and armament, 
above all his integrity, made him invaluable at a critical 
moment in our naval history. With small resources at his 
disposal he worked his hardest to adapt the fleet to the 
needs of the new time and from his administration the true 
Elizabethan navy must be held to date. Wynter as master 
of naval ordnance was the colleague concerned especially 
with artillery, and both alike were intimate with the adven- 
turous group which had gathered round Drake. 

The type of war-vessel which found most favour with them, 
though perhaps twice the size of the galleon 
designed by Henry VIII, was small compared ship of war: 
with the 'great ship' of Spain and Portugal or * e " Reven e e -" 
with the earlier Elizabethan warship. The " Revenge " was, 
on the eve of the Armada, the model of the fighting ship 
as understood by Drake. It was a ship of 441 tons burden, 
had a length of 92 feet, a width of 32 feet. Above the main 
deck two rising platforms, or fighting decks, raised the stern 
quarters high out of the water. The armament consisted of 
34 large guns of varied pattern, carrying shot ranging in weight 
from 30 lbs. to 9 lbs. These were fired broadside whilst stern 



60 The Elizabethan Fleet. [CH. II. 

and bow were each armed with chasing-guns. On the upper 
decks quick-firing (breech-loading) small pieces were mounted. 
They served to protect the main deck in case the vessel were 
boarded by the enemy, and to clear the rigging of a hostile 
ship, while the broadside disabled the hull. In contrast with 
Spanish practice English ships were very heavily armed and 
manned in proportion to their size : and it is noteworthy that 
as late as the middle of the 19th century the 32-pounder, 
which is about equal to the Elizabethan ' demi-cannon,' was the 
ordinary weapon of the British man-of-war. There is indeed 
a remarkable similarity in type of offensive armament between 
the Elizabethan and the modern Navy. 

The best master-artillerists were Italians : practised gunners 

were scarce, though England had great advantage 

isation of the over Spain in respect both of numbers and skill. 

Fieet. bCthan At the time of Drake ' s return from his voyage 
round the world in 1580, the Navy consisted of 
25 sail owned by the Admiralty, carrying crews of 7000 
hands. This small nucleus could rapidly be increased by 
transforming merchantmen into war-ships by the addition of 
fighting platforms and deck protection. We must remember 
that an ocean-going ship was always armed, and was expected 
to be able to defend itself from attack, so that the line of 
division between a naval vessel and a merchantman was not 
very strongly marked. But the condition of the Navy caused 
increasing anxiety, as the absorption of the Portuguese fleet 
(1580) gave Spain, for the first time, the control of a first-class 
naval force. An important Committee of Enquiry, upon which 
Drake served, was appointed in 1583 and fresh energy was at 
once imparted to the Administration. Drake in the following 
year received a commission for the organisation and command 
of a fleet in western waters, with which he sailed on his great 
expedition to the West Indies. In 1585 he is appointed 
Admiral of the fleet operating against the Spanish coasts, and 
here we notice that combination of the official Navy with 



1558 — l6o3-] The Armada and the English Navy. 61 

volunteer auxiliaries, which is a feature of all naval operations 
of the age. The nucleus of the expedition consisted of six 
ships of the Royal Navy, four ships were contributed by the 
Levant Company, Drake himself added four at his own cost, 
and others were owned by private gentlemen of Devonshire. 
Drake, as Admiral, was in supreme command, but the main- 
tenance of the fleet was only in part undertaken by the 
Government. The State thus provided the organisation, but 
private enterprise contributed to the expenses which might be 
made good by prizes and other profits of the venture. In this 
way merchant-ships and crews under the control of naval 
experts were prepared for the part they had to play in formal 
warfare. Thus it came about that although of 
the 100 or more vessels of war which engaged of I5 ^ vlctory 
the Spanish Armada in 1588 only a small 
proportion, perhaps 25, belonged to the standing Navy — that is, 
were owned, armed and victualled by the Queen's Admiralty — 
yet at least fifty more were officered and partly fitted for action 
under the responsible control of Hawkins and Wynter. The 
strictly ' volunteer ' vessels which joined the fleet of the Royal 
Navy, when the Spaniards were reported under weigh, were 
small and comparatively few in number, and, though useful 
for scouting purposes, contributed only in minor degree to the 
final triumph of the English fleet. In spite of the difficulties 
caused by the hesitations, counter-orders and parsimony of 
Elizabeth, whereby her own ships were sorely lacking both in 
provisions and in ammunition, the victory was in the minds of 
Drake and Hawkins never doubtful. 

This historic triumph was not won by sheer force of 
patriotism, of religious enthusiasm, or still less 

Its c&uscs 

of spontaneous, untrained energy. It was due 

on the other hand to patient foresight and organisation which 

had long been preparing for the struggle. 

Foreign observers rightly attributed English superiority to 
these three things : first, skill in seamanship and gunnery \ 



62 English Naval Tactics. [CH. II. 

secondly, experience in the designing and equipment of 
ships; thirdly, to a system of tactics which enabled the 
commander of each vessel to make fullest use of these ad- 
vantages. 

For fifty years English seamen had been trained in a hard 
but most efficient school. Shipbuilders of Plymouth and of 
the Thames had vied with one another in adapting their craft 
to the ever-growing needs of trade and warfare. In tactics a 
departure no less important marked the Eliza- 
the English bethan Navy. According to the old tradition 
school of naval Q f war f are a t sea a naval battle was intended to 

tactics. 

copy as nearly as possible an engagement on 
land. The object of a commander was to grapple and 
board the enemy and fight out the struggle hand to hand 
on deck. But Drake and Hawkins discerned that a fighting 
ship had a very special function of its own. The object 
of artillery was henceforth to demoralise the crew, to dis- 
able, to fire, and, if necessary to sink, the ship, of the enemy. 
Thus the vessel itself was the fighting unit and not the 
detachment of soldiers which it might carry. On board the 
Spanish galleon of war military authority, organisation, and 
discipline were supreme, whilst on the "Dreadnought" or 
"Revenge" the fighting order was determined solely by the 
special conditions of naval warfare. 

The victory of 1588 was the triumph of Drake's ideas. His 
discomfiture off the Portuguese coasts in 1590, when he allowed 
himself to be rashly drawn into operations upon land along the 
Tagus, brought about a temporary return to a naval policy 
which Elizabeth herself had always preferred, namely that of 
preying upon Spanish commerce by volunteer fleets. 

But the events of the last great expedition which Drake and 

Hawkins led to the West Indies in 1595 proved 

expedition of that the days of such strategy were passed. The 

Hawkins and Spanish Government had applied the lesson of 

Drake, 1595—6. r ... rs , . . _., 

the Armada with energy and precision, The 



1558 — 1603.] England Supreme on the Seas. 63 

'frigate,' a fast-sailing cruiser of small burden, had now 
become the typical Spanish war vessel : squadrons of 
heavily armed craft of the new design convoyed the treasure 
fleets and guarded the chief harbours of the Indies, which were 
further protected by forts mounted with powerful guns. Thus 
the two Admirals found themselves unable to repeat their 
exploits of twenty or thirty years before. An attack on Puerto 
Rico was repulsed (1596); the road to Panama was stoutly 
barred by troops. Self-confidence gave way to dismay. 
Hawkins and Drake succumbed to the deadly climate, and the 
expedition returned, not ingloriously, yet baffled of its purpose. 
Meantime in his absence Drake's own spirit had inspired a 
great stroke which has been called the Trafalgar of the 
Elizabethan war. The attack on Cadiz in 1596 Cadiz, 1596: 
was organised on the lines of Drake's strategy, the final 

T , 1 ,. • r 1 t» 1 triumph of the 

It was planned as an expedition of the Royal Elizabethan 
Navy, equipped and provisioned in the main Nav y- 
by the Queen's Admiralty ; its purpose was to seek out the 
Spanish fleets, whether "in being" or in preparation, in their 
own ports and dockyards ; to force them into engagement and 
to destroy ships and arsenals and works. The attack was 
completely successful. Though he had himself passed away, 
it was the final triumph of Drake's principles ; it was rendered 
possible by Drake's influence and exertions. It may even be 
said that it determined for the future the offensive character 
of English naval tactics by which was finally established the 
English supremacy upon the seas. 



64. [CH. Ill 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST PERIOD OF COLONISATION : 1603 — 1660. 

Elizabeth died on March 24th, 1603. It is difficult to 
realise as it deserves the contrast presented by 
i6o3? glandm tne nat i° n viewed at her accession and at her 
death. In 1558 the independence of England 
seems at stake. Now Scotland is England's partner. Spain is 
on her knees, and without her neither the Papacy nor France 
counts against this country. Then religious disruption seemed 
imminent; now the Reform in a specially national form is 
secure. In 1558 the Navy was in decay and forgotten; now 
it dominates the sea and is the pride of the nation. A doubt- 
ful dynastic title is replaced by a settlement disputed by no 
one. The distress and social upheaval of forty years before 
has yielded to unprecedented advance in wealth and security. 
A national self-confidence now possesses the nation, exhibiting 
itself in literature, in adventure, it may almost be said in a 
new type of character. All these, the vigorous patriotism, re- 
ligious freedom, personal energy, found their meeting-point in 
the efforts after national expansion, in the voyages of Drake, 
the schemes of Gilbert, the naval triumphs of 1588 and 1596, 
the founding of the East India Company. It is true that of 
actual territorial results nothing was to be seen when the 
"heroic age" came to an end. Newfoundland and Virginia 
were for the time abandoned, nothing had been yet heard 
from the adventurers in eastern seas. From Spain no formal 



1603 — 1660.] A new era in Expansion. 65 

concessions were so far obtained. But the instinct of expan- 
sion had slowly grown, had revealed itself, had been severely 
tested ; it needed only favourable conditions to rouse it once 
more to action and to stimulate fresh experiments. 

With the accession of James I, as with that of Elizabeth, 
we find ourselves confronted by a new be- „,,_ „ 

. J The Stuarts : 

ginning. From the point of view of English a new epoch in 
expansion, as from that of foreign, religious, or ex P ansion - 
constitutional policy, the year 1603 is something much more 
than a date in the history of dynasty. It marks a new 
age with new men, new preoccupations, new policies. Even 
though for a time certain leading figures remain on the stage, 
like Salisbury, we yet see them through a new atmosphere, in 
changed surroundings. If the old motives are still at work, 
hatred of Spain and sympathy with Holland, the adventurous 
instinct, the attachment to the Reform, they are mingled with 
others that are new, like religious separatism or the bitter 
rivalry with the Dutch at sea. 

The interest of the political and religious struggle of the 
century has overshadowed the importance of the external 
growth of the English nation. In the year 161 4 a certain 
Richard Martin was solemnly rebuked by the Speaker for 
daring to tell the House of Commons to its face that the 
struggling fortunes of Virginia were of more weight than all 
the " trifles " which usually occupied their attention. We can 
to-day see that the Palatinate or the royal marriage were less 
momentous facts in the reign of James I. than the rivalry 
of the Dutch in the far East and the fate of the settlers 
at Plymouth or Jamestown. Not indeed — to reaffirm an 
important truth — that the two sides of our history can be 
separated. The constitutional struggles and the influence in 
Europe of this country have always been affected in varying 
degree by the growth, the policy, and the experience of her 
offshoots across the seas. At the close of the nineteenth 
century we are more fully conscious of this truth, but the 

W. E. e 



66 Its characteristics. [CH. III. 

fact itself, this action and reaction of mother country arid 
daughter colonies, has always been. And to understand the 
nature and extent of this mutual influence we must begin by 
looking carefully into the early stages of our colonial story in 
the 17 th century. 

We shall find certain characteristics of English expansion 

which must be kept before us. In the first 

tics : (a) serf- " place, as compared with the Elizabethan age, 

ousnessof we notice a deeper seriousness and a fuller 

purpose. ...... 

sense of responsibility in the operations of 
plantation and foreign trade. There are fewer brilliant per- 
sonalities, but there is far more united, persevering effort. 
The light-hearted, romantic enterprise of a Raleigh, the care- 
lessly granted "patents" of Gilbert and Frobisher, are re- 
placed by the strenuous action of a powerful corporation 
like the East India Company, and the solemn purpose of 
the Pilgrim Fathers. 

In the next place we are still in the experimental stage, 
(b) Variety Geography is, as regards the new worlds of East 
ofexperi- and West, still an infant science. The North- 
West Passage may be found through Hudson's 
Bay, the St Lawrence or the Chesapeake, and many attempts 
will yet be made to discover it. The traders to the East will 
try the Spice Islands, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, 
before they realise that the Indian Peninsula itself is their 
best sphere. What climate and soil best suit English settle- 
ment is yet undetermined. The economic possibilities of a 
new plantation have to be found by hard experience and after 
many mistakes. Different types of settler, different kinds of 
labour, free and slave, black and white, will be tried; and 
systems of land tenure and methods of production will be 
tested in their turn. What we may call the first principles 
of colonisation are yet unfixed; e.g. Virginia may reveal a 
wealth of gold and silver, in which case it will be appro- 
priated by the Crown, like a Spanish dependency; it may 



1603 — 1660.] The motive of Trade. 67 

prove a trading centre, like a Dutch factory, and so be worked 
by a company; it does actually become a true colony. The 
religious community, the single-capitalist proprietor, the char- 
tered company, each undertakes an experiment. Constitutions 
are sketched on paper, but as time passes colonial institutions 
ultimately take the shape required by the actual needs of the 
community. Under the English flag almost any experiment 
in national expansion may be tried; no controlling authority 
at home impresses uniformity of type ; failure to succeed upon 
one line only suggests fresh enterprise. 

Thirdly, expansion is determined in the main by com- 
mercial motives rather than by those of religion ,>-,_. 

J ° (c) Motives: 

or of empire. It is curious to note how small mainly com- 
a space military or naval objects have in the mercia ■ 
choice of new colonies. " Naval stores " — timber, hemp, pitch 
and so on — are alluded to now and again as desirable pro- 
ductions. Virginia was regarded by Governor Delaware as a 
"bit in the ancient enemy's mouth," that is, an advanced point 
against Spain. Plymouth, indeed, originated from religious 
convictions, but the motive of conversion of the heathen was 
rarely expressed and more rarely acted upon. 

Proprietors and Companies at home look for profits upon 
their capital : the ' plantation ' is regarded as The Com 
a private estate to be worked for dividends, panyandthe 
But the settlers, too, are men of business aims, ° ony ' 
with the Englishman's desire for equal chances. Hence arises 
a conflict between Company and Settler for freedom of culti- 
vation and trade : in the course of it proprietary rights tend 
to disappear. Then another claim to monopoly is gradually 
put forward against the colonist, this time on behalf of the 
mother country as a whole. The argument is Th M th r 
something like this. Plantation is the joint country and 
venture of the home-land and the settlers; to e oony * 
these two alone belong the profits. Hence the export and 
import trade of the colonies, at any rate in Europe, must 

S~2 



68 Difficulties of Title. [CH. III. 

pass through English and not foreign hands. The King's 
custom-house, English shipowners, merchants and manufac- 
turers, are entitled to the first share of the gains on colonial 
external trade : Havre and Antwerp must buy their tobacco 
or sugar in London or Bristol, not in Virginia and Barbados. 
There is no new principle in this; the Navigation Acts only 
codify and extend to new circumstances enactments long ac- 
cepted. 

Again, so strong is the trading motive that it severs tra- 
ditional policy and leads in the East first, in Europe later, to 
war with the Dutch. So too the hostility of Boston and New 
Amsterdam in America, or the friendly agreement of French 
and English settlers in St Kitts, are both dictated by motives 
of commerce. And it is to be recognised that crimes inspired 
by lust of Empire or zeal for Orthodoxy can be surpassed in 
grimness by the cruelties of European peoples in pursuit of 
' peaceful ' trade. t 

Lastly, there is the international difficulty : the conflict 
(d) vague- between rights, (a) of occupation, (b) of dis- 
ness of title. covery, (c) of native concession, which is not 
wholly unfamiliar to us to-day. It was not easy in the seven- 
teenth century to decide what constituted rights of occupa- 
tion; or, in the absence of exact logs, charts and maps to 
prove discovery or settle its extent; whilst the Christian powers 
recognised or ignored native rights as it suited their purpose. 
In this way Spain claims New England by virtue of the Papal 
Bull of 1493, or of the occupation of Florida; England by 
the discovery of Cabot, and by actual settlement ; France by 
De Mont's patent (1603) from the French Crown, or the voyage 
of Champlain along the coast some two years later. Drake's 
treaty at Ternate is gravely employed against the Portuguese 
or the Dutch in the East; French and English alike quote 
agreements with Abenakis or Iroquois with equal insincerity. 
Virginia claims, both by charter and by occupation of the 
coast-line, a territory stretching back to the "South seas." 



I003 — i66o.] The English in the East. 69 

But French missionaries descend the Mississippi, and forth 
with assert for Canada the ownership of its tributaries up 
to the ridge of the Alleghanies. Amidst this confusion and 
inconsistency, the one thing that clearly counts is effective 
settlement which can defend itself against attack on the spot or 
secure vigorous support at home. 

The growth of a law of nations as affecting colonies was 
hardly even in its initial stage. Nor, had it existed, were 
European rulers in the seventeenth century, always excepting 
Cromwell, much better able to enforce it in a remote continent 
than they were a century before. 



The English in the East. 

The union of Portugal with Spain, by which Spain was 
established as a first-rate naval power, had at the 
same time laid open Portugal and her depen- Portugal after 
dencies to attack from the enemies of Philip II. Is8 °- 
Englishmen did not overlook the fact that the Armada con- 
sisted largely of Portuguese vessels, that it was mainly equipped 
in the Tagus and that it sailed from Lisbon. It was natural, 
therefore, that its defeat should be followed immediately by 
active aggression on the part of English and Dutch adventurers 
upon the Portuguese trade monopoly in Brazil and the East 
Indies. 

The nature of the Portuguese colonial dominion needs 
a brief description. We have seen that the desire for a 
route to the East free from foreign interference had been 
the chief motive of English maritime enterprise for nearly a 
century. The victory of 1588, however, emboldened the 
conquerors to defy Portugal after the same fashion that Drake 



?o The Portuguese Colonial System. [CH. III. 

had defied Spain, and to force their way by the Cape into the 
heart of her eastern possessions. 

The Portuguese, like the Spaniards, founded their empire by 
The Portu- ^ e sword. But they were at the same time navi- 
guese colonial gators and traders ; and they did not regard 
their colonies, as Spain did, mainly as the 
means of supporting a European domination. Philip wanted, 
above all things else, treasure ; but Portugal, whilst proud of 
her imperial position in the Indian Ocean, was keen to secure 
the lucrative trade in African negroes (of which Lisbon was as 
early as 1530 the great mart of the world), in eastern spices and 
in silks. At this period Portuguese emigrated in much larger 
numbers than either Spaniards or English ; and in Brazil 
they founded permanent agricultural settlements, a true Colony 
which maintained itself against all European attack. But 
apart from Brazil, the Portuguese had but a precarious hold 
upon their foreign possessions. These were mainly military or 
trading posts, with or without a vague sovereignty over an 
undefined hinter-land, and, in Asia and Africa, restricted to coast 
districts, smaller islands, or useful harbours. The Government 
at Lisbon discouraged, like that of Madrid, private enter- 
prise whether of individuals or of trading companies; it 
regarded its territories as so much Crown land to be exploited 
for the benefit of the exchequer. It distrusted its Viceroys 
and officials, who in turn made haste to be rich at the expense 
both of the home Government and the native communities. 
The Portuguese have always been hopelessly unequal to the 
task of administering the vast Empire to which they laid claim. 
In the 1 6th century they revealed no organising faculty, 
whether in government or commerce. Clever generals, bold 
seamen, sharp traders they produced indeed ; but the art of 
1 governance ' and the higher commercial instincts were alike 
wanting. When Drake in 1579 crossed their track their 
power in the East had reached, if it had not already passed, its 
culminating point. At that time all that was worth claiming 



1603 — 1660.] James Lancaster. 71 

along the ocean sea-board of Africa from Morocco to the Red 
Sea was, in name at least, theirs ; and wherever a European 
state had asserted political or trading powers along the southern 
coasts of Asia from Aden to the Moluccas, that state was 
Portugal. Her eastern capital, religious, commercial and 
political, was fixed at Goa on the Malabar coast; and there she 
maintained a strong fleet. 

Drake had brought home with him in 1580 not only a 
glowing report of the attractions of the eastern 
seas but an actual treaty, or what passed for one, attacks upon 
with the native sultan of Ternate, a small island the tr , ade mo ' 

nopoly, 1591. 

of the Molucca group (see p. 34). Letters also 
reached London from Englishmen settled in India, and from 
merchants and secret agents in Spain and Portugal who were 
quietly observing the profitable nature of the East Indian 
trade. One of these men, James Lancaster, was 
a typical seafaring trader of the Elizabethan age, Lancaster 
He had taken military service in Portugal, and 
had abandoned it for some commercial position there. In 
1 59 1 he sailed as representative of London merchants on his 
first voyage to the East, penetrating, with much resistance from 
the Portuguese, as far as the Malay peninsula. In 1594 he was 
in command of an expedition to Brazil : he captured Pernam- 
buco and returned with heavy plunder within a year. " Who 
so cowardlie as a Portingaill ? " writes one of his officers ; 
"after the first bravado was past they were verie cowardes." 
Lancaster lost no time in urging the helpless nature of the 
Portuguese possessions upon his employers and other 
merchants at home. The Spanish war, which was now proving 
once more the incontestable superiority of England at sea, 
seemed to demand that the opportunity should be seized to 
break down once for all the Spanish-Portuguese trade monopolies 
in the West and East But decisive action was _. _ „ . 

The Dutch 

stimulated by foreign rivalry. An association traders in the 
of Dutch traders had in 1595 despatched four as,I 595- 



72 The origin of the East India Company. [CH. III. 

ships to the Indies by the Cape route, and on their pros- 
perous return a second fleet of eight large vessels sailed in 
1598. To English merchants the Eastern trade seemed too 
great for individual enterprise. A meeting was called by the 
Lord Mayor of London on Sept. 22, 1599, when it was agreed 
by the citizens that a company of traders should be formed, 
with a capital for the first venture of .£30,000. This Company 
was, after delays due to reasons of State, formally incorporated on 
The East Dec. 31, 1600, as "The Governor and Company 
India com- f t ^ e Merchants of London trading to the East 

pany of Lon- , ° 

don, Dec. 31, Indies." It was essentially a private associa- 
l6o °' tion to which a monopoly was secured by 

charter for fifteen years; its members were aldermen and 
merchants of all degrees in the City of London, with the 
careful exclusion of all representatives of official or courtly 
influence. This characteristic mark of one phase of English 
expansion — the free play given to individual energy with the 
minimum of State interference — distinguishes thus the founda- 
tion of the most significant private enterprise in our history, 
the East India Company. 

The records of its earliest years shew the extreme care 

The Com- wnic h was bestowed upon its ventures both 

pany'sac- at home and afloat. The steps taken to raise 

Uvity - capital, to secure freedom of action from the 

Crown, to maintain the corporate nature of its trade, to select, 

fit out and arm vessels suitable for an adventurous traffic, to 

appoint captains, masters and factors of skill and integrity, to 

prepare letters and presents to native princes — indeed all points 

of business detail, indicate the keen practical judgment which 

was at that time characteristic of the English and Dutch as 

contrasted with their rivals in France, Spain and Portugal. 

The first 'voyage' was ready by February, 1601. 

Voyage ifo. The ^ eet consisted of four vessels, with a united 

company of 480 men, and carrying both money 

and English goods for trading purposes. James Lancaster 



1603 — 1 660.] The early voyages of the Company. 73 

was ' chief governor ' or ' principal merchant,' with supreme 
command; John Davis, the explorer, was chief pilot. The 
fleet weighed anchor off Woolwich on February 13th, but not 
until October following could Lancaster make Table Bay. 
Sickness and loss amongst the crews prevented him from 
touching Sumatra until June 1602, fifteen months out. In 
spite of Portuguese opposition the Sultan of Acheen accorded 
freedom of trade and security of goods and person. Bantam, 
on the north coast of Java, was the goal of the voyage : there 
three factors, the trading officers of the Company, were left 
behind to secure cargo for future ventures, and with full lading 
of pepper, cloves and other valuable merchandise Lancaster 
made his return in safety in Sept. 1603. 

The first voyage of the Company was not only highly pro- 
fitable in itself (cloves, for instance, at this time produced a 
thousand per cent, profit) but full of encouragement to the 
proprietors for the future. A second voyage, 
therefore, under Sir Henry Middleton, who had vS^'iS? 
accompanied Lancaster, was quickly organised 
on the same scale as the first (March, 1604). 

Sumatra was now reached in nine months : at Bantam the 
Factors were found safe and well, and the business of the 
Company fairly established there. Middleton passed on to 
Amboyna, and to the Moluccas. During April, 1605, the fleet 
is busy trading amongst the Spice Islands; Middleton pro- 
duces Drake's treaty but fails to get leave to establish a factory 
in Ternate. For he finds himself already confronted by the 
true rival to English enterprise in the far East. Off Bantam 
he had been dismayed to see the Dutch Company's fleet of 
twelve vessels, with a tonnage of 5,500 tons, fully armed and 
manned, ready for fighting or for trade. Now the Dutch were 
still at war with Spain in Europe, and therefore with the Portu 
guese dependencies in the Indies, whilst James I., on the othsr 
hand (and therefore the English Company), was on terms of 
amity with both. Trading was thus a complicated matter for 



74 The objects of the Company. [ch. III. 

the English factors, especially when actual fighting occurred 
between Dutch and Portuguese in the Spice Islands. More- 
over the Dutch were very ' hard ' traders ; pushing, determined, 
and always prepared to use force, they were already feared and 
hated in the Java seas, and their presence proved no slight 
hindrance to the factors of the Company. However, Sir 
Henry succeeded in securing profitable cargoes; he had carried 
the operations of the Company as far East as the Moluccas, 
and had surveyed the ground for future enterprise. He 
reached Plymouth in May, 1606. 

The first two voyages of the Company reveal facts of much 
The position importance. We notice, first, that the Indian 
and aims of peninsula itself lies at present outside the sphere 
ompany. f E n gii s h enterprise; the islands of the far East 
offer a more profitable field. The Portuguese are not strong 
enough to oppose by force, but they raise difficulties in negotia- 
tions for trade with native states. The rivalry of the Dutch, 
on the other hand, is a far more serious obstacle. The quali- 
ties they exhibit are in the main those of the English trader, 
with less scruple and certainly with more tenacity ; whilst in 
armed force and in numbers they are at a great advantage. 
Already they are the dominant European factor in the Eastern 
seas. The local princes consent with more or less readiness to 
trading, but it is evident that they will prove helpless in 
presence of European aggression. Valuable cargoes can be 
had at enormous profits. Acheen and Bantam afford pepper, 
Banda nutmegs, the Moluccas cloves and sago : and it is 
probable that with these the western market will be soon 
glutted. Resident 'factors' of the English Company with 
some difficulty set up centres for trade in native ports, and 
in accordance with the general policy of the Company avoid 
interference in native affairs. Although royal letters and 
presents shew that the race for treaties and concessions has 
already begun the Company does not aim at excluding 
foreign traders from sharing these privileges. A general support 



1603 — 1660.] The rivalry with the Dutch. 75 

is accorded to it from the Crown, but it is expected to provide 
for its own defence, and cannot count on any strong diplo- 
matic backing in disputes with Dutch or Portuguese. The 
business-like character of the enterprise stands out in the in- 
structions given respecting the nature of the trade to be 
sought for, in the stress laid upon spices and silks rather 
than upon gold or pearls. There is no question of El Dorado 
or of Empire; romance has given way to the sober calculations 
of the City merchant. ' Plantation ' is not thought of, the 
climate alone, curiously far more fatal to the English than to 
the Dutch, forbids it. 

The prevision of Sir Henry Middleton as to the true 
obstacles to English trade in the far East was The conflict 
soon verified. Within twenty years the Dutch with the 
to a great extent closed the seas eastward of 
Sumatra to the East India Company. The Dutch were people 
of a different stamp to the Portuguese. They had passed 
through a severe school under Philip II. Not only had they 
been forced by invasion to look for subsistence from foreign 
trade, but religious and political struggles had hardened their 
temper. Thus they were fiercer than Englishmen in their 
Protestantism, more tenacious of their independence and of 
that trade by which alone they could make both religious 
and political freedom secure. They had been the ship- 
owners and sea-traders of Western Europe for nearly a 
century, and had suffered greatly from the union of Portugal 
with Spain, which not only closed to them the port of 
Lisbon, but enabled Spain for the first time to drive their 
merchantmen from the seas. Sheltered in a sense by their 
friendship with England they eagerly seized the opportunities 
given them by the ruin of the Spanish navy (1588-1596). 
Their energies were turned to the East. Their East-Indian 
ventures were from the first (1595) organised upon a far larger 
scale, were more frequent and were more strongly armed than 
those of the East India Company of London. In two years 



76 The Dutch policy in the Far East. [CH. III. 

(1602-3) they despatched twenty-six ships as against four which 
sailed from the Thames. The Dutch E. I. Company indeed 
was not founded until 1602, but once established the Govern- 
ment lent its whole support both at home and abroad to the 
enterprise. Like the English, the Dutch attacked the Portu- 
guese monopoly in the name of open trade, and not with the 
aim of political empire. But by 1 605 they had discovered that 
the native princelets could not secure, and that the Portuguese 
would not allow, freedom and equal rights of trade. Only a 
strong and independent State can guarantee to a foreigner 
commercial rights free of molestation from its own subjects or 
from other foreigners ; and can at the same time protect itself 
from the conversion of a trading privilege into political power. 
The East India Company at this period honestly believed that 
the free and equal trade which they sought with eastern peoples 
was possible, and that acquisition of territorial rights was need- 
less and undesirable. But the Dutch quickly made up their 
minds, first that no native State in the far East was strong 
enough to secure to foreigners any treaty rights whatever, and 
secondly that no European trader would hesitate to infringe 
such rights unless upheld by forts, ships and cannon. Not 
only were they clear sighted to perceive the facts, but they 
had vigorous captains with overwhelming force at their com- 
mand on the spot They wanted monopoly of the spice trade, 
and that in the islands implied sovereignty. English mer- 
chants did not perceive till too late that their only chance lay 
in enforcing a similar monopoly within a corresponding terri- 
torial limit, such as Java or Sumatra. Nor, in forming an 
estimate of Dutch policy in the far East may this be forgotten : 
that no European nation, not Spain at her worst, hardly even 
the African slave-trader in his palmy days, bears a heavier 
reproach for calculating and persistent cruelty, for utter indiffer- 
ence to human life, for unholy means employed for sordid 
ends than does the ' peaceful and God-fearing planter,' trader 
and administrator of the Dutch colonies in the 1 7th century. 



1603 — 1660.] The monopoly of the Spice Islands. J J 

In 1609 the Dutch began by seizing the little Banda group: 
by 161 2 they were at open war with the representatives of the 
English Company. After 161 5 they are found treating English 
vessels as lawful prizes to be sunk or appropriated, and ports 
offering them shelter are destroyed. Negotiations for a settle- 
ment were opened in London in 1618. The Dutch envoys, 
keen, thoroughly-informed negotiators, knew precisely what 
they wanted, and persistently refused to be diverted from their 
point. James, preoccupied and indifferent, yielded, in spite 
of the Company's protests, every point that was vital : he was 
satisfied with a general promise of a share in trade without 
territorial foot-hold, the Dutch insisting with success that but 
one fortified post (and that was at once rendered ineffective) 
should remain in English hands. As a consequence of the 
treaty of 1619 English trade east of the strait of Malacca 
sank into insignificance. The Company retained Factors at 
Amboyna, Bantam, and at a few other points, and they owned 
practically one tiny island in the Banda group. But the 
foundation of Batavia in 161 9 and the murder of all English 
merchants at Amboyna in 1623, secured to the Dutch the 
practical monopoly of the eastern islands, which form still the 
richest colonial possession of equal area possessed by any 
European state. The lesson was a severe one, but it has not 
seldom been forgotten since. Ignorance of the true situation 
on the spot, contempt for expert knowledge, the desire to 
be rid on any terms of one difficulty because attention is 
demanded by another, lastly a tendency to, cling to a principle 
once sound but already rendered obsolete by facts : — English 
colonial policy has many instances to shew of failures of this 
type, of which that of James I in his dealings with Holland 
is the earliest example. 

The stress of Dutch competition in the far East had 
meantime brought about results of the highest p .. f 
importance to the future of the English Company, the e. i. c. 
The desire to open up a field of operations in 



78 The E. I. C. at Surat [ch. ill. 

regions where the native powers were strong enough to grant 
and to enforce their concessions and where the Dutch were 
not as yet in possession led to various experiments. The route 
by Cape Horn since Drake's experiences of it in 1580 was 
considered impracticable; but the North- West Passage was 
contemplated once more ; Sir Henry Middleton examined the 
Red Sea ports in 1609, and repulsed by the Arab Sultan of 
Mocha conducted piratical operations off Aden, though without 
finding encouragement from the Company. A voyage to Japan 
in 161 1, not without profitable returns, revealed however the 
determined hostility of the Dutch, who were there before us. 
In 1 608 Captain Hawkins commanding the "Hector" reached 
s the Swally roads off Surat. Finding it impossible 

Swaiiy Fight, to open trade, owing to the Portuguese who re- 
presented him to the native authorities as a pirate, 
Hawkins sent on his ship to Bantam, and himself travelled to 
Agra armed with one of the royal letters with which James kept 
the Company's captains supplied. This was favourably received 
by the reigning Moghul, but did not attain the object desired, 
as the Portuguese representatives at the Court prevented the 
grant of permission to trade, and ultimately forced Captain 
Hawkins to withdraw. But the report of his experiences 
emboldened the Company to vigorous action. A fresh 'voyage,' 
comprising four strongly manned and armed vessels, under 
Captain Best, a fighting sailor, sailed for Surat in Feb. 161 2. 
The Factors landed early in September, and found the governor 
of the Moghul favourably disposed. Suddenly a Portuguese 
trading fleet, under armed convoy, appeared off the mouth of 
the Taptee. Best seized his opportunity. The Portuguese 
had hitherto succeeded in maintaining their monopoly of trade 
— they had at Surat no territorial rights — by dint of bluster, 
misrepresentation and intrigue. The naval fight which now 
ensued astonished the native authorities, for the victory of the 
English vessels — insignificant in size and armament by the 
side of the great ships of their enemy — was overwhelming. 



1603 — 1660.] The Condition of the Moghul Empire. 79 

The battle in the Swally Roads and Downton's victory in 
1614 in the same waters were of decisive importance in the 
history of our position in the East, and from a naval point of 
view have hardly less interest than the far better known events 
of the heroic time of the Elizabethan war with Spain. 

Negotiations with the Moghul were now promptly con- 
cluded. In January 16 13 the Firman or imperial decree was 
received at Surat granting a site for an English factory there 
under the protection of the Governor. From this time therefore 
dates the formal beginning of the establishment of the British 
on the continent of India. 

Much light is thrown upon the Moghul court and rule at 
the period when the English first enter upon the The 

scene of Indian history by the journal and letters Moghul 
of Sir Thomas Roe. He had been sent as m P ,re - 
Ambassador by James I at the instance of the East India 
Company in 16 15 to strengthen the position of the English 
Factory at Surat and generally to counteract the Portuguese 
influence at the court of Agra. 

The Moghuls were Mahommedan invaders whose Empire, 
dating from the early years of the 16th century, had extended 
from the Punjab over the Ganges plain eastward to Assam 
and southwards to the Taptee. At this period (16 15) the great 
Moghul Jehangir, son of Akbar, was engaged in reducing by 
arms and intrigue the independent kingdoms of the Deccan. 
The earlier Moghul sovereigns were men of striking person- 
ality. Akbar showed the qualities of a great 
and enlightened ruler. His sincerely tolerant 15 ^teo 5 . 
spirit and his administrative ability enabled him to 
retain the allegiance of the Hindus, whose religion and insti- 
tutions he respected and whose ancient dynasties in many 
cases, especially in Rajputana, survived in a feudatory relation 
to the conqueror. Such kingdoms, where a prince was strong, 
might be practically independent. Elsewhere Nawabs or Su- 
bahdars governed provinces under the central control of the 



80 The Growth of Surat. [CH. III. 

Emperor or Padishah, ruling from Agra or Delhi — a control, 
the effectiveness of which varied with the distance from the 
seat of government, with the strength of the Nawab or of the 
reigning Moghul. Jehangir had succeeded Akbar 
i6o C — i6« r when the English Company first set foot in 
India. A wholly unworthy successor of that 
great ruler, he maintained his power by cruelty and intrigue. 
Indifferent rather than tolerant in creed, vindictive and sensual, 
hated by the Rajpoot princes, dreaded by his own sons, he was 
the more or less willing tool of unscrupulous adventurers of 
both sexes. Rajahs, nawabs, nobles and traders alike had to 
walk warily. Flattery and bribes were the avenues to power in 
a court which was in external surroundings perhaps the most 
gorgeous known to history. The fabric of the Empire though 
outwardly secure was unstable, and could not have withstood a 
determined attack from without or from within. But the 
European powers were too distant, the Hindoo feudatories too 
weak; no new dynasty beyond the Hindoo Koosh had yet 
arisen keen for the spoils of the great plains. The Moghul 
kingdom was destined to another century of existence, till it fell 
from sheer corruption before the assaults of the Mahrattas and 
the masterful interference of a handful of traders and soldiers 
from the far West. 

Into this strange world, impressive by sheer bigness, by its 
wealth, its population, its seeming authority, but yet in reality 
weak from lack of unity, of the concept of patriotism and of 
physical or moral vigour, the sturdiest races of Europe had now 
begun to intrude. 

Surat, the first chief port of the Moghul Empire, was the 
most promising centre of trade that could have 

extern been chosen, in spite of the rivalry of Dutch and 

of English Portuguese who had both trading agencies there. 

Thus Surat as the oldest Factory of the Company 

on the peninsula, the nearest to home, and planted in the midst 

of an industrious and peaceful population, kept naturally the 



1603 — 1660.] The Establishment of Factories. 81 

position of chief establishment of the Company in India through 
which all the trade between the East and home for a long time 
passed. From it were opened in subsequent years inland 
agencies at Ahmedabad and Agra, and factories along the coast 
at Bombay and Calicut, from which were drawn such goods as 
cotton cloth, indigo, spices, saltpetre and opium for the lading 
of the Company's fleets off Surat. Gambroon on the Persian 
Gulf was opened as a factory under Surat in 1632. 

As early as 161 2 the Company had attempted trade at 
Masulipatam on the east coast ; a Factory was established in 
1622, and enlarged on the model of Surat in 1632. The 

But it was overshadowed by the acquisition, by Coromandei 
purchase, of Madras in 1639. This consisted Madras, 
of a strip of land along the. coast six miles long, x6 39- 
by one mile broad, near the Portuguese settlement of San 
Thome. Protected on two sides by a narrow channel from the 
mainland, and commanding it, was a small island, less than five 
hundred yards in length. This, walled and fortified, became 
Fort St George. For the whole area a yearly rent was paid to 
the neighbouring Hindoo raja. When he was conquered by the 
powerful Sultan of Golkonda the English claimed to retain 
their sovereign rights subject to the original payment. The 
progress of the Factory was not rapid, although in 1653 it became 
a Presidency with control over Hoogly, Patna, and Balasore, 
and all the stations of the Company on the Coromandei coast. 

In Bengal the Portuguese had a fortified post at Hoogly, 
120 miles from the sea, which was destroyed by 
the Nawab of Bengal in 1632. In the following i6 33 enga ' 
year the English built an unfortified factory at ^°° gljr: 
Piply near the mouth of the Hoogly, but the 
trade was much harassed by the impositions of the Nawab. 
In 1640 Dr Boughton, the surgeon of one of the Company's 
vessels, was able to render some service to a daughter of the 
Moghul ; the reward he asked was privilege for the Company 
to trade on the Hoogly free from duties, which meant freedom 

w. e. 6 



82 A typical East Indian Factory, [CH. III. 

from arbitrary interference of the imperial governor. Thus 
arose the factory at Hoogly, followed by other posts on the 
waterways of Bengal, whence silk, indigo, and saltpetre (much 
in demand for gunpowder in the civil wars) were exported via 
Surat to England. All were merely trading posts, undefended, 
without any territorial rights, and were administered under Fort 
St George. But the trade was profitable and capable of great 
expansion. 

The Factory at Surat — the model upon which the English 
trading centres in India were organised — was a 
1613-1670: ' self-contained society administered as a detached 
portion of British territory. A certain degree of 
state was maintained, and degrees of precedence amongst the 
representatives of the Company were carefully observed. The 
President, as the chief merchant, or agent, was called, and the 
whole staff were lodged at the expense of the Company in the 
Factory itself, which was built round a square court, the ground- 
floor being used as warehouse and offices. The President was 
assisted by a Council of four senior Merchants, who formed the 
highest grade of officers, below them ranking the Factors, 
Writers, and Apprentices. The President in Council of the 
Factory at Surat is the direct antecedent of the Governor in 
Council of the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras and the 
Viceroy in Council at Calcutta. 

The business of the Factory was transacted by the Council 
in formal meeting, at which all details of trading were settled. 
Goods were purchased at Surat through Hindoo traders called 
Banyans, and consignments received from Agra or Calicut. 
These were then sorted, valued, and repacked for the London 
market. In the same way English products, of which cloth 
was the chief, were received and forwarded as required to 
suitable places of sale. This work was done either in the 
Factory itself or under the protection of the fort of the city. 

The scale of salaries was low ; for instance, the President 
of Madras received in 1670 only ^300 a year, and a principal 



1603 — 1660.] T/ie organisation of the E. I, C. 83 

merchant as little as ^50. But such sums in no way consti 
tuted the real incomes of the Company's officers. Private 
trade, which might compete with the joint-stock ventures of the 
East India Company, was rigorously forbidden ; but merchants 
and factors might engage in native traffic from port to port, 
and the habit of receiving presents from Hindoo traders was 
not repressed. The Company indeed by its low rate of pay 
was responsible for much irregularity of this kind. 

Madras, though less prosperous as a trading centre, had 
the distinction of a territorial possession : and 
the President was a military governor and civil suseorge. 
administrator as well as a commercial agent. 
The island of Fort St George was the English settlement, 
garrisoned, fortified, and ruled by the Company as an English 
military post. The adjoining strip of mainland was inhabited 
by natives ; the Collector of Customs, the junior member of 
the Council, was magistrate of the 'Black Town,' and organised 
and controlled the native police. Popular religions, customs, 
and language were respected, and on a small scale the problems 
of British Indian administration had begun. 

The original constitution of the E. I. C, like that of all 
the great Elizabethan 'regulated' Companies, 
followed the lines of the English guild. The a ■ regulated ' 
object of the guild was to unite for mutual Com P an y- 
advantage all citizens pursuing a common industry. Each 
member retained his separate position as trader or artificer, but 
agreed to obey certain conditions in conducting his business in 
return for the benefits of corporate defence and opportunities 
of united enterprise. Neither guild nor ' regulated ' Company 
was in any sense a partnership or a modern joint-stock associa- 
tion. The first members of the East India Company were the 
merchants who signed the petition for the Charter in Sept. 
1599; these admitted new members by payment, by appren- 
ticeship, after terms of service, or by nomination. From the 
outset it was stipulated that owing to the risks and uncertain- 

6—2 



84 The risks of the Charter. [CH. III. 

ties of a distant enterprise all members should refrain from 
private ventures, but should take shares in such ' voyages ' as 
were duly approved and organised by the elected officers of 
the Company. 

Until 1 612 these 'voyages' were entirely independent of 

each other. Members who desired — or could be 
of separate persuaded — to join invested their capital (from 
voyages, 1600— _£ 2 ^ t0 ^ IO oo) in a venture prepared by 

Committees of the Court of the Company. The 
profits of the voyage were divided amongst those who had 
thus subscribed, and varied from 95 to 235 per cent, upon the 
investment. From various causes it early became common for 
members to carry over their investments from one voyage to 
another and thus retain a continuous interest in the Company. 
In this way by 161 2 the system of subscription for a series 

of ventures was definitely substituted for the 
the join'tTstock original method of separate ' voyages.' This 

ventures,i6ia— was ca n e d "investment on the ioint-stock." 
1660. . . J 

Factors, captains, officers in India and at home 

could be thus continuously employed, and permanent organ- 
isation secured. The new financial working coincided in time 
with the formal establishment of the Factory at Surat (161 2 
— 13) ; and continued until the Restoration. 

Meanwhile the Company shared naturally in the misfortunes 
of the body politic. It suffered from the evil 

The Crown ' * 

and the Com- government of James I, who not content with 
pany * flinging away the English position in the far East 

shared in Buckingham's specious plunder of the Company in 
1624, when ^20,000 was extorted. Charles I infringed the 
charter by granting a patent to a rival association in 1635, an d 
so encouraged "interlopers," or outside adventurers, to com- 
plicate the already difficult problem of the Company in India. 
During the Civil War apart from obvious causes the Company 
so suffered from the glut of Eastern products in European 
markets that membership could be obtained for a few shillings. 



1603 — 1660.] The English in North America. 85 

Under Cromwell prosperity began to dawn again. The interests 
of rival British traders were, after the Dutch Peace of 1654, 
absorbed by the E. I. C, which obtained a new charter from 
the Protector, according once more the full monopoly of trade 
with the Indies. 

A third step in financial organisation was thereupon gradually 
taken : shares instead of being withdrawn on the WL . . 

. . , , The begin- 

termination of a fixed penod began to be sold nings of the 

on the market, as in a present day joint-stock basiT"^' 

Company. The capital thus by degrees became 

fixed and was utilised on behalf of the whole body of 

proprietors. 



The English in North America. 

Raleigh's Virginian colony, failure as it was, had never 
been forgotten, and isolated attempts to renew it .. 
marked the first years of the 17 th century. The conditions of 
peace with Spain (1604), which was interpreted 
to admit the right of English settlement in such parts of the 
New World as lay outside the sphere of Spanish occupation, 
gave at once a different character to the enterprise. The rapid 
increase in the wealth of London and the chief sea-ports, the 
foundation of the East India Company in the interests of 
peaceful trade, and its early success, the example of the Dutch 
adventurers, the cautious and pacific temper of the new King 
all combined to modify the romantic spirit of the heroic time 
just passed by the sober commercial motives which charac- 
terise the new age. 

In 1602 and again in 1605 a landing had been effected on 
the American coast some distance to the north First charter 
of the old Virginian settlement and called by its of Virginia, 
discoverers New England. Taking warning from 
the activity of the Dutch, the Earl of Southampton and Sir F. 



86 The Charier of Virginia. [CH. ill. 

Gorges, the energetic governor of the port of Plymouth, invited 
the aid of Chief Justice Popham in securing from James I a 
charter for a plantation, to be established within the limits of 
the 34th and 45th degrees of latitude, that is between the 
north boundary of the present state of South Carolina and the 
coast of Nova Scotia. The area is enormous ; but it was felt 
in those days of geographical ignorance that it was safer to 
include too much than too little. The Charter was granted in 
April, 1606. It was proposed to found two settlements, one 
in the northern region, which, however, at the present stage, 
came to nothing ; and one farther south, though the actual 
locality was undetermined. It is solely with this latter colony 
that the history of the Virginia Company is concerned. Its 
first settlers sailed from London in December, 1606, and 
steering a course by the West Indies reached in April, 1607, 
the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. On May 13th, a spot to which 
the name of Jamestown was given was chosen, on the bank of 
a navigable river (the James river), as the site of the new settle- 
ment, and the continuous life of the English people across the 
seas was begun. 

The most notable of the original members of the Company, 
the holders of the King's 'patent,' or Charter, 

th?premo£rs. were Haklu yt and Somers. Richard Hakluyt 
had been for five-and-twenty years an ardent 
enthusiast in the cause of maritime discovery, and was 
personally acquainted with all the chief explorers of his time. 
His collections of narratives, taken down in many cases from 
the lips of the navigators themselves, are an invaluable source 
of information on Elizabethan voyages. His name adds the 
element of lofty patriotic motive to the Virginian enterprise. 
Somers, on the other hand, by his military career and bold 
adventures in the Spanish Indies brought with him more than 
a tradition of the days of Drake. The practical side of the 
venture is represented by Sir Thomas Smith, the leading spirit 
of the East India Company ; Popham, the Chief Justice ; and 



1603 — 1660.] T/ie First Constitution of Virginia. 87 

the London and Bristol merchants who sat with them on the 
Council. The objects of the Company were not at the out- 
set materially different from those of Gilbert and Raleigh (see 
p. 37). The settlement of a new English community beyond 
the seas had been the central aim of Raleigh. " I shall still 
live to see it an English nation," he had written to Cecil at a 
time (1602) when such a prospect seemed most visionary. If 
less was said about checkmating Spain and glorifying the 
English Crown by vast acquisitions, it is still an object of the 
Company to provide a career for needy gentlemen, to open a 
new market for English cloth, to produce ship-building 
materials. Exploration will reveal the possibilities of the 
country, and the Directors speak in the old vein of discoveries 
of gold and, restless under Dutch rivalry, of a new way to 
1 the South seas,' with which no European power might inter- 
fere. 

The causes of failure in the past were imperfectly under- 
stood by the promoters of 1606. It has now First Con . 
long been realised that the development of a stitution of the 

, , - . Colony : the 

new colony is m the absence of precious Double coun- 
metals a tedious and mostly an unprofitable Cl1, 
process. The co-partnership under the new charter was better 
fitted than a single proprietor, such as Raleigh, to meet the 
inevitable loss of the first stages of settlement. This was one 
step in advance. In the next place the control of the planta- 
tion both in England and on the spot was very carefully 
considered and provided for. We must remember that the 
work of administering a community of Englishmen in a distant 
land was an entirely new problem ; nor did the experience of 
Spanish or Portuguese dependencies afford much help in 
solving it. We were entering, therefore, of necessity on an 
experimental stage in colonial government, and during the 
century which followed a variety of types of organisation and 
constitution are put into practice on American soil. The 
charters of Gilbert and Raleigh had left all questions of govern- 



88 Its defects. [CH. III. 

merit vague and undetermined : and the absence of recognised 
authority was one of the causes which led to the collapse of 
their schemes. The experiment of 1606 erred in the opposite 
direction, for a most elaborate constitution was provided. The 
important feature consists in the two Councils, the one at home 
the other in the colony. The 'Royal Council of Virginia,' 
sitting in London, contained fourteen or more members, nomi- 
nated by the Crown, and including such prominent men as 
Sandys, Gorges, Sir Thomas Smith, and other promoters of the 
enterprise. This was the true controlling power, directed by 
the King; it was practically a new Privy Council for Colonial 
affairs, and as such not amenable to Parliament. Its first 
function was to elect from the settlers a Resident Council, who 
should appoint their own President. To this Council was 
entrusted the local administration, though all regulations 
passed by them were to be submitted to the King and Council 
at home for ratification. The right of trial by jury and the 
supremacy of the Church of England were stipulated for. 
But official appointments, taxation, trade and the general policy 
of the enterprise were entrusted, not to the practical men who 
found the money at home, nor to the colonists themselves on 
the spot, but to a mixed body presided over by the King, in 
which officials rather than men of business predominated. 

It is easy to criticise this first charter of Virginia as the 
. . . work of a narrow, despotic mind, and to blame 

Its defects. ... 

the Company for accepting it on such terms. 
But Englishmen, at that time, as often since, were too eager to 
plunge into the practical task before them to raise difficulties 
in advance on abstract matters of government. The business 
men who promoted the Company desired above all things a 
strong central authority under which the settlers would be set 
free for the work of exploration and industry. But this was 
exactly what this cumbrous constitution did not and could not 
secure. Six months were occupied in obtaining instructions 
from home, whilst emergencies required prompt action. The 



1603 — 1660.] Difficulties of tlie first Settlers. 89 

power of the President was limited, whilst the chief need of the 
colony was the strong hand of a capable leader. 

The original settlers numbered about 140 persons. The 
majority of them were gentlemen in needy 
circumstances, the 'failures of the family' at t he°settiere? 
home, and, like so many emigrants since, ignorant 
of, and averse to, the rough manual work which every new 
colony demands of its members as the price of subsistence. 
The one strong man amongst them was Captain John 
Smith, and he landed as a prisoner put under arrest by his 
colleagues on the voyage. Smith's career had been a 
romantic one, even for that age. A soldier of fortune in 
the Low Countries and in Hungary, a prisoner in Russia, a 
castaway in the Mediterranean, a captive on point of execu- 
tion by Red Indians, his adventures proved him a man of 
self-confidence and resource, of endurance and daring courage. 
Experience quickly shewed that upon qualities of this kind 
rather than upon constitutional privileges must the infant 
settlement be built. Smith consequently took the lead in 
affairs to which he was entitled and in 1608 was made 
President. By this time death or desertion had deprived the 
colony of nearly all its foremost men; and to Smith's influ- 
ence alone was due the continuance of the plantation. More 
settlers now arrived; but they were still men of the wrong 
stamp, impatient of authority, bent upon searching for gold, 
disdaining hard work, and looking for needful supplies, not to 
sowing and planting, but to the arrival of relief ships from 
London. The Company at home saw no signs of profitable 
returns, and there seemed every chance that the fate of the old 
colony of Raleigh would be repeated. 

But the enterprise was in the hands of men who were not 
to be daunted by initial mistakes. The elaborate 
constitution was seen to be unsuited to the charter. The 
primitive needs and the small scale of the actual company 

r supreme, iooq. 

settlement. A radical change was demanded. 



go The Virginia Company ; its success. \Q,Yl. III. 

The King was already aware that no money was to be had from 
Virginia for years to come, and his interest in the colony 
ceased. In 1609 a new Charter is granted : and the second 
experiment begins. Hitherto the Company itself, that is the 
proprietors who found the capital, promoted the emigration, 
kept up communications and found the supplies of the 
plantation had been without direct share in its control. In 
future the Virginia Company, as represented by its Directors, 
was to be the administrative body : nominating a Governor of 
rank and experience, with assistant officers, as its authority on 
the spot. Public spirit was aroused ; the proprietors were now 
headed by Salisbury himself; Bacon was amongst them; the 
leading politicians, the chief merchants and merchant com- 
panies are on its list. The venture had taken deep hold upon 
the nation ; it was no longer the romance of a few enthusiasts 
but the business-like effort of earnest and practical men. 

The Company made Sir Thomas Smith its organising chief 
at home : Lord Delaware was sent out as Governor, supported 
by able and experienced administrators. The constitution was 
of the simplest. The Council of Directors was vested with 
entire control, subject only to the general territorial supremacy 
of the Crown. The Governor, as their representative, had 
authority to impose martial law and to compel obedience to 
regulations promulgated by himself to meet the crisis which 
threatened the very existence of the colony. 

Within ten years the settlement of Virginia was an estab- 
lished colony, with a large measure of prosperity, 
success^f a characteristic trade and a rapidly growing 
l 6 e c £ ,lony ' population : it was a bit of England across the 
seas, with English life, customs, and above all an 
English parliament. The period of strong government was 
marked by its own special troubles. Repressive regulations 
produced discontent ; Indian risings, the constant terror of the 
American settler, were subdued with difficulty; plain agricul- 
tural work was neglected ; it was still difficult to secure '.ne 



1603 — 1660.] Beginnings of Self-GovemmoU. 91 

right type of emigrant. But, on the other hand, a new spirit 
of determination began to actuate the settlers; the grant of 
freehold tenure in lieu of tenancies, by infusing the motive of 
private ownership, stimulated improvements. 

Tobacco was found to be a very profitable and successful 
crop. Cattle were imported and throve; and with the increase 
of tillage provided food sufficient for the population. Further, 
the Bermudas had been annexed to the Crown in 16 12 and 
were handed over to the Company; and the colony was strong 
enough to attack and destroy (1614) the tentative settlements 
of the French on the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia which 
lay within the original limits of the Company's Charter. 

The Council of Directors in London was slowly learning how 
to meet the growing needs of the colony. Sir Edwin Sandys, a 
man of statesmanlike perceptions and a strong opponent in the 
Commons of the royal policy, was made Treasurer : and under 
his influence the next important stage in Colonial „ . . . 

\ ° . . Beginnings of 

government was reached. In 16 19 instructions seif-Govem- 
were sent to the Governor that an i\ssembly of ment > l6l 9- 
burgesses of the colony should be summoned to meet at 
Jamestown. Each free settler had the righf of voting ; each 
county and hundred returned two members. There was but 
one House. The rights of the new body were defined under 
three heads : 1. To put forward in the form of regulations the 
instructions sent out from the Company. 2. To add regula- 
tions of their own. 3. To draw up petitions to the Company. 
The grant of self-government is clearly tentative : the aim is to 
facilitate the task of the Governor and of the Company in 
London, and to prepare for a larger devolution of central 
authority. The first Assembly shewed itself of practical 
temper, and devoted its time to framing ordinances of im- 
mediate necessity, affecting tenure of land, relations of 
employer and servant, intercourse with Indians, and the 
control of dangerous idlers. 

It is impossible not to feel the historic interest which 



92 The Charter resumed. [CH. III. 

attaches to the birth of the eldest of the many daughters which 
have sprung from the ' Mother of Parliament ' amongst peoples 
of other race and speech as well as of her own. It was 
certainly no mere coincidence that the Assembly of Burgesses 
of Virginia was called into being at a time when our own 
House of Commons was putting forth a new and vigorous 
life. 

Although it was not perceived at the time, the new status 

of the settlers thus secured was in reality in- 

constitution : compatible with the sovereignty of a Board of 

Crown and As- Directors in London. Two general aims had 

sembly, 1623. ... 

actuated the Virginia Company in procuring 
the Charter of 1609. The first, the effective control of the 
colony from home ; the second, the profit to be drawn for its 
proprietors from the soil. On the true lines of English 
development the principle of self-government had now come in 
to supersede external control. To this extent then the 
sovereignty of the Company was bound to disappear, to be 
merged in the more elastic supremacy of the Crown. There 
might have been, perhaps, for a while longer a place for its 
mercantile functions, just as the commercial privileges of the 
East India Company survived the lapse of its political power. 
But in the history of the English beyond the seas we 
rarely find that monopolies of land or trade are tolerated when 
once self-government, even in germ, has been attained. We 
shall see the same instinct at work in Barbados and the 
Carolinas. 

The fall of the Virginia Company was probably, therefore, 

The Com- XVi an y event on ty a question of time. This, 

panyandits however, will not blind us to the remarkable 

place which this important Chartered Company 
fills in the history of the Empire. As often since, a company 
stepped forward to take risks and try experiments which the 
English Government would not, and indeed could not, under- 
take. The Virginia Company embodied a union of national 



1603 — 1660.] The New Colonial Government. 93 

aspiration with mercantile aims, and was an attempt to secure 
the permanence and organisation which marked Spanish 
colonisation without the cramping effects of rigid State control. 
The Company had succeeded in its work even at the moment 
of its dissolution. That this was hurried on with slight regard 
to the great services which the Company had rendered, or to 
the immediate interests of the planters, or the actual rights of 
the proprietors, may be conceded. Possibly Spanish intrigue 
had something to do with the time or manner of the revoca- 
tion of the Charter. The Assembly itself deprecated (1623) 
the change on behalf of the colony. Parliament, had it 
been able, would undoubtedly have interfered. But however 
we may condemn the motives of James I in the matter, beyond 
doubt the assumption by Crown and Assembly of full responsi- 
bility for its affairs was not only advantageous but essential to 
the unfettered growth of the new community. The success of 
the Company was due in no small part to the accident which 
brought men of the stamp of Delaware, Dale and Sandys into a 
leading place in its councils. A period of mismanagement, a 
change of policy, or the pursuit of narrow mercantile results on 
the part of the Directors — always within bounds of possibility — 
would inevitably have brought about a crisis, and the peaceable 
transition now effected might have been no longer feasible. 

The charter was revoked in 1623, and the new constitution 
formally proclaimed in May, 1625. Hence- 
forward Virginia was governed by a Council Administra- 
of twelve members sitting in London, practically tlon ' l6a5- 
as a Committee of the Privy Council. By this Council a 
Governor and twelve assistant officials were appointed to 
represent the Crown on the spot, conducting the executive and 
judicial business of the colony. The colonial 'Governor in 
Council' thus makes his first appearance. The Assistants 
seem to have been nominated in part from amongst the 
resident colonists with some regard to their fitness. The 
House of Burgesses enlarged its functions. It proceeds to 



94 Characteristics of Virginia. [CH. III. 

assert, without protest (1623), and re-assert (1631 — 1642) its 
exclusive claim to levy internal taxation. As the colony 
grew it claimed the further right of appointing its own 
officials. Failure to secure this caused friction from time to 
time between the Governor and the Assembly, who quickly 
realised with their fellow-citizens at home that self-govern- 
ment is incomplete unless to legislative and fiscal rights is 
added that of electing and calling to account executive 
officers. 

The development of the colony was henceforward in the 
main uneventful. The Indian massacre of 1622, 

Character- 
istics of vir- terrible as it was, was followed by a punishment 

so severe that no similar danger was afterwards 
experienced, and, before long, the Indians are found volun- 
tarily surrendering their lands in return for the protection 
of the Government. Virginia, indeed, adopted towards the 
natives a policy of fair dealing and humanity which was ex- 
ceptional in that age, and not invariable to-day. The result 
was that the growth of the colony proceeded unchecked : new 
land was broken up, and plantations, cut off from their nearest 
neighbours by miles of forest, were settled in easy security 
from attack. The Virginians, often thus isolated from each 
other and rarely concentrated in townships, busy and pros- 
perous in their private affairs, developed special characteristics 
of their own. 

Virginia is a land in which a long seaboard and frequent 
rivers have determined the nature of its settle- 
ment. Its fertile soil is widely distributed, and 
for the most part readily accessible by water. Hence it was 
a colony of scattered manor-houses and estates rather than of 
townships and of small holdings. Its proprietors were men 
of country tastes and some wealth with the traditions of the 
English squire. Very early in its history the social institutions 
of Virginia were fixed once for all. Negro Slavery, dating 
from 1620, although for some years comparatively unimportant 



1603 — 1660.] Its Population and Trade. 95 

in extent, strengthened a tendency already at work. The 
discovery that tobacco was the crop which Virginia could 
most profitably produce conduced to the establishment of the 
planter system, under which an estate of 100 or of 1000 acres 
was devoted to one crop cultivated by indentured servants or 
negro slaves. Town life hardly existed. Jamestown was but 
an untidy village : the centres of society and political power 
were the hospitable manor-houses of the planters. Society fell 
thus into three classes. At the head stood the planter aris- 
tocracy, who claimed the Royal Governor as their social equal, 
and who administered the functions of English quarter sessions 
through the unit of the parish and the county. Below them 
came the indentured servants : these were mostly English 
agricultural labourers or farmers' sons, some were orphan and 
destitute children, a few only were wastrels or respited prisoners. 
All were bound for varying terms of years, at the end of which 
they became citizens and in many cases owners of land. The 
best of them then merged by degrees into the lower grade of 
planters, or became overseers on large estates. The worst 
formed the class of "mean whites," despised alike by planter 
and by negro. Lastly came the negro slave, a small class 
down to the Restoration, but after that date rapidly increasing 
in proportion to the white population. 

There was no trader or artisan class. The Church of 
England was established by law in the colony; 
and, as in England, dissent, but not Catholicism, Tr ade! ICS and 
received a contemptuous tolerance. Politically 
the sympathies of Virginia were royalist, and whilst cavalier 
exiles were welcomed, Cromwell had to threaten attack before 
the Commonwealth was recognised at Jamestown. But the 
planters were not keen politicians. The inevitable disputes 
of Governor and Assembly seldom became acute, and the 
proceedings of the Legislature are generally uninteresting. 
Government was a means to order and security, not a battle- 
ground of political or religious differences. Virginia, although 



96 The Development of the Colony. [ch. III. 

a self-governing colony, was essentially an oligarchy, with the 
strong and weak points of a government by landowners. Its 
administration was free from sordid motives : it was marked by 
a strong vein of colonial and imperial patriotism, and, under 
the direction of a succession of governors of ability, the actual 
work of government was well done. If the large majority of 
the population stood outside the franchise, the same was true 
of the mother country. The expansion of the colony west- 
wards was hampered by no European rival, nor by hostile 
Indians, who were few in number and less vigorous than the 
Iroquois of the north, whilst the waterways gave ready access 
as far as the Alleghanies. Economically Virginia prospered 
exceedingly : her staple product was in regular and increasing 
demand in Europe, while the conditions of climate and of 
labour ensured an even supply. Trade restrictions imposed 
by the Commonwealth, confirmed at the Restoration, and 
accepted with frequent protest, had little effect upon the 
prevailing industry. But, whether as selling his own product 
or purchasing supplies from Europe, the planter dealt direct. 
There were no manufacturers, merchants or middle-men : and, 
as in all new countries, the professional class was limited 
mainly to officials. The increasing employment of slaves 
narrowed the range and depressed the inventiveness of produc- 
tion ; for individual enterprise, which turns to one experiment 
after another in order to develope new sources of wealth, was 
impossible in a country where free labour and a middle class 
hardly existed. Public education was ignored; and as late 
as 1670 the Governor could boast that there was no printing- 
press in the colony. Leaving out of sight the great fact of 
slave labour, Virginia reproduced politically and socially many 
of the features of an European aristocratic state. 

The adjoining colony of Maryland belongs to the Vir- 
ginian type. It originated as a proprietary 
x J^ aryland : colony under charter from Charles I, by which 
Lord Baltimore, the owner, was vested with right 



1603 — 1660.] New England: the Pilgrim Fathers. 97 

of peace and war, of martial law, appointment of judges, 
conferring of titles. A representative assembly was estab- 
lished on the Virginian model (1647), w i tn the proprietor as 
Governor. But the characteristic contribution of Maryland to 
the English colonisation was the frank acceptance of toleration 
in religious opinions. Lord Baltimore was a Catholic, and in 
Maryland Catholics and Protestants lived in a harmony un- 
known to the Old World. This distinction, not less than the 
general type of government, the character of its cultivation, 
slavery and the interposition of the Dutch, effectually severed 
Maryland from the Puritan colonies of the north. 

Meantime another experiment in colonisation inspired by 
different motives was being tried : the settlement _. „ 

The New 

of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth in New England Coio- 
England. Since the year 1606 there had existed 
in Holland certain congregations of English independents who 
had emigrated in search of the freedom of 
worship denied them in their own country. In Fathers! 12 " 1 " 
Leyden, their chief centre, the exiles formed an 
organised community gathered round their church ; but ex- 
perience had disappointed their hopes of realising the ideal of 
a community separated from the world which had led them to 
abandon their English homes. They longed for a new land 
where distractions would be fewer, and where especially the 
children might be more surely brought up in devout and 
serious temper. Guiana was suggested, New England, or the 
Dutch colony on the Hudson. The Leyden congregation 
was English still in instinct and by family ties. Virginia was 
fixed upon. Friends in England formed a company to find 
capital for outfit and vessel, the concession from the Virginia 
Council was obtained, and in the " Mayflower " 
the emigrants bade adieu to Europe on Sept. ofc^i&w" 111 ' 
6th, 1620. On Dec. nth one hundred and 
two settlers landed at a spot, called by them Plymouth from 
their final port of departure, within the bay sheltered by Cape 



98 Tlie Plymouth Colony. [CH. III. 

Cod from the open sea. It was far to the north of their 
intended destination. The severity of the climate dismayed 
the new-comers and proved fatal to many of them. But the 
settlement was laid out and log huts built, and the community 
organised. When in the early summer the "Mayflower" set 
sail on her return, not one settler turned back. Bradford the 
Governor, and Standish, who had charge of the defence, were 
the two men on whom the chief responsibility rested, and 
both had exceptional gifts for their task. The neighbouring 
tribes of Indians were enfeebled by sickness and war, and 
fortunately proved friendly rather than hostile. 

Before landing, each member of the band of emigrants 
had signed a joint agreement "to combine themselves into 

a civil body politic and to frame such just and equal 

laws from time to time as shall be thought most meet 

and convenient for the general good of the colony unto which 
we promise all due submission and obedience." 

Plymouth was known to be outside the limits of the Vir- 
ginia Charter, and legal status was sought from the lately 
formed "Council of New England," a company incorporated 
in 1619 to take over the territory lying between the Hudson 
and Nova Scotia, and which proved to be a much less enter- 
prising and capable body than the Virginia Company. From 
them the Plymouth Company in 1621 obtained its patent, 
confirmed and extended ten years later. 

The growth of the new colony was not rapid. Fresh 

Pro ressof sett ^ ers cam e out, but the loss by death had 
the settle- been considerable. The principles upon which 
the settlement was founded forbade the usual 
methods of recruiting the population. Indentured or slave 
labour was not thought of. All settlers were on a footing 
of equality; the plantation was a co-partnership in which 
individual property in the soil was admitted only by degrees. 
The task of securing bare subsistence was itself an absorbing 
one : there was no surplus, for some years at least, available for 



1603 — 1660.] Its Growth, and Institutions. 99 

trading or export. The proprietors of the Company at home 
were no doubt sympathisers, but as men of business they looked 
for some return on the capital they had subscribed. But New 
England produced no profitable crop like tobacco ; the fisheries 
though promising needed time for development. Within seven 
years the London shareholders surrendered their entire rights 
to the actual settlers. The affairs of the colony now became 
more prosperous. Its religious and political aims were hence- 
forward independent of outward influences. New emigrants 
arrived and more land was broken up : freehold tenures stimu- 
lated industry. Other townships were gradually formed and a 
little trading with the Dutch and with the natives became 
possible. The Plymouth settlers indeed proved excellent 
material for the making of a new community. Their tastes 
were mainly for country life. They were inured to self-denial, 
thrift and hard work. Above all they were at the outset an 
organised body, with common aims and beliefs, animated by 
the highest motives and accustomed to act together for the 
joint welfare. As we should expect from their 

, , 1 1 • 1 Institutions. 

antecedents, the Plymouth colonists promptly 
applied their instincts of self-government to the administration 
of their settlements. At first the Governor, elected by the 
original settlers, presided over an Assembly of all the freemen, 
which retained the power of making laws and regulations, but 
delegated executive and judicial powers to an elective body 
consisting of the Governor and seven 'Assistants' called the 
"Court." Representation was within a few years rendered 
necessary by the rise of new townships at a distance from 
Plymouth; and in 1638 the Deputies elected by all house- 
holders virtually took the place of the primitive meeting of the 
whole body of freemen. As contrasted with Virginia we shall 
see that all the New England settlements revealed from the 
first the kinship with their Puritan brethren at home in attain- 
ing directly a self-governing administration. In the case of 
Plymouth the New England Company at home, busy with 

7—2 



ioo The Massachusetts Company. [cil. III. 

further schemes of settlement, wisely allowed free play to an 
experiment which gave them no trouble and served to prove 
the possibilities of their great territories. The general authority 
of the Crown was thus the only exterior authority to which the 
colony was amenable : and this was rarely exercised in opposi- 
tion to the avowed policy of the colonists themselves. 

The plantation at Plymouth had encouraged other attempts 
at settlement upon the same coast. Amongst these was the 
acquisition (1625) of a site in Massachusetts Bay by a handful 
of Puritan emigrants from Dorsetshire who gave to it the name 
of Salem. 

The Massachusetts Company was formed by a small group 
Th m °^ ar dent Puritans, who, however, remained 

chusetts Com- members of the Church of England. A patent 
pany. ioas— 9. f rom fa e jsj ew England Company, confirmed 
and enlarged by Charter in March, 1629, gave control of the 
proposed colony to a Governor, Deputy Governor and eighteen 
Assistants, with liberty implied to erect in the colony itself the 
seat of administration. As the majority of the shareholders in 
the new venture joined the settlement, the existence of the 
Company in London, which organised the undertaking in the 
first instance, soon terminated. The character of the original 
founders shews that the Massachusetts colony was built of 
material of a type new in English plantation. For the first 
time we meet with merchants, clergy and country gentlemen, 
with their families, bringing to the common task means, 
education and governing capacity. The motive which united 
them was not different from that of the Plymouth settlers 
ten years before. But the political condition of England had 
in the interval become still more discouraging to men of 
earnest and thoughtful temper. Disaster in the shape of 
absolutism and of revolution threatened the nation, and orderly 
English freedom seemed possible only in the New World. It 
was no light cause that brought men of the stamp of Winthrop, 
a landowner of Suffolk, to sacrifice established position, and 




To face p. ioo 



CAMB. UNIV. PRESS 



1603 — 1660.] T/ie Foundation of the Colony. 10 1 

face, in middle life, the hardships of a pioneer in New England. 
He and his companions were alike Puritans, drawn mainly 
from the Eastern counties, and it was not concealed that 
settlers of milder views would find scant welcome. Some 
amongst them were, like Endicott, men of fierce uncom- 
promising convictions with whom a question of Church order 
or Biblical controversy was the chief concern of life. 

In September, 1628, Endicott reached Salem with a first 
contingent of 60 settlers. By the autumn of the 
following year over a thousand emigrants in all f unded? l0ny 
had landed in Massachusetts Bay : amongst 
them Winthrop, the first governor under the new charter. 
Salem now became secondary to Boston, the site of which was 
chosen by Winthrop. Boston was henceforward the seat of 
administration and the chief centre of trade. Four years later 
the colony included some 16 townships with a total population 
of 4,000, all of them Englishmen. In respect of education, 
means and position, the settlers at Boston and Salem were 
superior to those of Plymouth. In seriousness of purpose and 
in cohesion they surpassed the Virginians. In the words of 
Endicott himself: "It is not with us as with other men whom 
small things can discourage or small discontents cause to wish 
themselves home again." 

The political institutions of Massachusetts took definite 
shape at an early stage. Under the charter of 
1629 the Governor was appointed by the Com- m ent. g ° Vern 
pany in London, but in the following year the 
entire administration of the colony was vested in the actual 
settlers. The Governor and his Executive Council or Assistants 
were henceforward elected by the whole body of freemen ; and 
the freemen were speedily limited to such heads of families as 
were enrolled Church members. The franchise, in modern 
language, rested partly on a religious qualification. With the 
growth of townships the primary assembly or direct form of 
popular government, became as in Plymouth unworkable ; 



102 Institutions of Massachusetts. [CH. III. 

representation was introduced, in true English fashion, on 
a question of taxation. From 1634 a miniature House of 
Commons, elected by ballot, met yearly at Boston ; the Governor 
and Assistants, after a short interval, formed an Upper House. 
Although almost republican in character, it is characteristic 
that the leaders of opinion repudiated as a calumny the term 
democracy as applicable to their Government. 

As religious motives had given birth to the colony, so 

the influence of the Churches and their pastors 

governed its political and social life. It was 
inevitable that Puritan churchmen should, once severed from 
the historical associations of their old home, become, like their 
fellow colonists of Plymouth, Independents in Church govern- 
ment. Revolt against repression in England by no means 
implied religious tolerance in the New World. Public opinion 
in Massachusetts was intolerant by conviction, and neither 
politician nor pastor raised a voice for freedom of worship. 
On Rhode Island alone were religious disabilities, at least for 
Protestants, unknown. 

As in England, the township was the political unit and the 

main centre of political education. Civic rights 
stitudons?" were as jealously guarded as those of the colony. 

The contrast with Virginia in this respect is 
most marked. The Massachusetts township was not an 
accidental growth. It was created by a definite act of the 
Colonial Government. The church and town hall were its 
primary centres. Needs of defence and of religious worship 
encouraged municipal life. A settler acquired land only as a 
citizen of his township. Part of the newly-proclaimed area 
was allotted to such citizens in freehold tenure; part of it 
remained the common property of the freemen who had 
rights of pasture or tillage in succession : again reproducing 
features of an English borough. The large estates of Virginia 
were unknown in New England, and settlement was pushed 
westward to the primeval forest as the needs of the population 



Character- 
istics. 



1603 — 1660.] Characteristics of the Colony. 103 

demanded the formation of fresh townships. After the year 
1640 the stream of immigration ceased. There were now in 
Massachusetts 20,000 people almost exclusively of English and 
Puritan origin. The appropriated area extended some 35 miles 
inland from Boston. The characteristic features of the colony 
were already fixed. 

The true lessons of English expansion are to be learnt 
partly by watching the development of political 
institutions, but not less from the quiet uneventful 
progress of agriculture and industry, from the 
pioneer work of the outpost settlements, and from the various 
expedients by which economic, social or educational needs 
are met by a new community. New England was at this 
period chiefly a forest country and the land was won to 
cultivation by hard and perilous toil. As compared with 
Virginia or Lincolnshire, the soil was poor and the climate 
rigorous. Large properties worked by imported labour were 
unknown : the yeoman, the farmer who owns his farm, was the 
characteristic settler. For a century agriculture formed the chief 
occupation of the colonists. Industries were few. There 
was no mining, few handicrafts. Fisheries and ship-building 
were, however, important occupations. Large classes of goods 
were always drawn from England. The artisan and labourer 
in Massachusetts had better opportunities than in England 
and might rise to high position. Slavery was rare, was com- 
paratively humane, and almost entirely domestic, whilst traffic 
in slaves was forbidden. Thus the relations of classes were 
not unlike those at home. Birth and official position gave 
social precedence. The clergy, often men of education and 
force of character, formed the only professional class. New- 
haven and Boston were progressive towns, while Plymouth 
stood still. Before the end of the century Boston was re- 
cognised by all the colonies east of the Hudson as their social 
and intellectual centre. 

The citizen of Massachusetts was marked by a desire 



104 Tlie Puritan Society. [ CH - m - 

for learning which has generally characterised Scottish rather 
than English Puritanism. As early as 1636 a 
ie^ a : r i636. Co1 sum of £a°°, equal to a year's public revenue 
of the entire colony, was voted by the legislature 
of Massachusetts for the establishment of a high school or 
college, which in the following year was further endowed by 
a like large sum. John Harvard, who, before emigrating, 
had taken his degree at Cambridge, established a new Cam- 
bridge close to Boston. The college now took the name 
of its benefactor. For a long time its chief service to New 
England lay in the supply of an educated ministry, whilst its 
nearness to Boston, and the connection with it of the leading 
families, tended to infuse a strong element of culture into the 
social life of the capital — an influence which Harvard has 
never ceased to exert. 

Common or public schools of two grades were compulsorily 
established by order of the Massachusetts As- 

Schools. 

sembly in 1647 ; Newhaven had a free school 
as early as 1641, and the example was followed elsewhere. 
Plymouth lagged behind, for it was by the middle of the 
century sinking into an inferior position and contributed little 
to the progress of New England. The printing-press was set 
up at Cambridge in 1638. 

The law of New England was, like its political institutions, 

the Common law of the old country slightly 
of ( the e coic?n£! S modified to meet the needs of the new. But 

in not a few things controlled in England by 
public opinion alone, the New England State interfered by 
statute. Manners, dress, amusements, social customs were, in 
Salem or Plymouth, a matter of State regulation. The motive 
of such interference is to be found in the special circumstances 
under which the group of New England colonies took their 
rise. 

New England at this period presents us with Puritan 
society in its sterner aspects. The community had set out 



1603 — 1660.] New England and tlie Indians. 105 

to establish an ideal of corporate life and a standard of belief 
and of conduct to which each individual was required to 
conform. The leaders desired to exhibit such a righteous 
nation as the law-givers and prophets of Israel had pourtrayed 
in the Old Testament. But the colonists were Englishmen as 
well as Puritans. Side by side with their religious and moral 
aims went an instinct of political freedom, of local government, 
of individual enterprise in trade, a love of order and honest 
administration. If opinion repressed freedom in religion and 
thought, it not less provided in its zeal for learning the instru- 
ment by which in respect of worship and belief the rights of 
the individual would later be fully won. 

The expansion, indeed the very existence, of the settlements 
demanded a careful handling of the native 

_._... ., - , r The Indians. 

question. The Indian tribes of the coast of 
Massachusetts had been enfeebled by war and disease, 
although to the west and to the north they were vigorous 
and dangerous. The New England town was invariably built 
with a view to defence against sudden attack. The Indian 
rarely accepts civilisation, and retreats before the white man. 
To the pioneer settler he was at first an uncertain neighbour ; 
he soon became a dreaded enemy. Trading with him was 
limited in every colony by law. In a fitful and half-hearted 
way it was attempted to Christianise him. But the gradual 
appropriation of his hunting grounds led to outbreak and 
massacre which made a peaceful relation precarious and for 
long periods impossible. Differing in this from his French 
rival the New Englander seldom succeeded in making the 
Indian either a tool or a friend. The pioneer settlements 
were but slowly pushed towards the west, and in them the 
liner qualities of the colonists were trained. By endurance of 
hardship and peril, the hunter, the fur-trader, the woodsman, 
gradually widened the bounds of the English world, and what 
was once won was never, in spite of massacre or burnings, 
again lost to civilisation. 



106 Other Settlements in New England. [CH. III. 

From Plymouth and Massachusetts in their turn began a 
migration to the unoccupied regions on either 
l6 J onnecticut: side. Some time before 1633 the Dutch, es- 
tablished since 1607 on the Hudson, had built 
a fort on the Connecticut River. Thither also pioneers from 
the English settlements made their way between 1633 and 
1640. In 1639 Connecticut, recognised by Massachusetts as 
a separate colony, drew up a formal constitution which is 
described as 'the first truly political constitution of America.' 
The Governor and Council were elected by the freemen ; no 
religious test was imposed on the electors, who from the outset 
returned local representatives to an Assembly. The townships 
received rights of municipal self-government. Not only governor 
and legislature but all officials and magistrates were subject to 
popular election and control. The colony of Connecticut with 
Newhaven, afterwards incorporated with it, became the frontier 
post of English settlers against the Dutch. 

The settlements afterwards known as Rhode Island, Pro- 
vidence and other townships on the Island itself, 
iand- )d i636 S " ^ad their origin (1636 — 1640) in the religious 
bitterness of Massachusetts. Roger Williams was 
an opponent of that identification of the Church and of the 
State upon which the leading colony based its institutions. 
Being expelled with other sectaries Williams founded the settle- 
ment at Providence in which, on grounds of abstract right, 
fullest liberty of religious opinion was permitted. The experi- 
ment served as a safety-valve for the controversial fury of New 
England. The colony was regarded with aversion by the 
Independents and its progress was hindered by its discordant 
fanaticisms. 

To the north of Massachusetts settlements were formed 

by groups of Englishmen sent out under the 

shire and auspices of the New England Company, who 

Maine: 1622-3. were su b se quently joined by exiles from Boston. 

They occupied merely a narrow fringe of land round Piscataqua 



1603 — 1660.] Beginnings of Federation. 107 

Bay and the river which, flows into it, forming civic com- 
munities altogether independent of each other. Even when 
absorbed by Massachusetts in 1643 they retained much ot 
their original autonomy. These townships were the nucleus of 
the later province of New Hampshire. 

Maine was at this time one vast wilderness of forest, 
through which two rivers of importance made their way to 
the sea. The coast was rugged and offered little attraction 
to settlers. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth in 
England, had been for years a leading promoter of American 
colonisation. He became proprietor of a large area north of 
Piscataqua Bay, by Patent of 1622, in which the name 
'Maine' first occurs. Charles I, in 1639 granted to Gorges 
rights amounting to sovereignty. Settlement was made in 
1623 near the site of Portland. The colonists were not 
Puritans, and, severed from the New England colonies to 
the south by dangerous coasts or dense forest, lived apart 
from the general current of American colonial history. 
The scattered plantations of woodsmen and fishermen failed 
to prosper, owing no doubt to conditions of soil and 
climate and to the attractions of the more favoured colonies 
of the south. The chief importance of Maine lay in the 
fact that it formed a natural bulwark of New England against 
the French. 

The coast line from the little river St Croix to a point 
south-west of Newhaven was thus appropriated by 
English settlers. The next stage in the history ?%£££*£ 
of New England was reached, when in 1637-38 1637-1642. 
Connecticut approached the Court of Massa- 
chusetts with proposals for joint action. The motive lay in the 
practical needs of common defence. Two European nations 
were rivals of the English in the settlement of the middle 
regions of North America. The Dutch had as early as 1607 
begun to occupy certain posts along the Hudson: in 1622 they 
built and fortified, in spite of protests from London, their chief 



io8 Need of union against Dutch, French, [CH. III. 

place New Amsterdam at the mouth of the river. The Dutch 
colony was* directed with less of that strenuous and pushful 
energy which was characteristic of their East India Company. 
However, the fur trade, shipping and agriculture afforded 
profitable occupation to a sturdy though not numerous body of 
settlers. These had in the Hudson their natural trade route to 
the interior, and to the valley of this great river, and the coast 
line adjoining, their settlements were mainly confined. The 
fur traders however penetrated at an early date into the basin 
of the Connecticut river, where the Massachusetts men found 
their stockade at Hartford in 1632. The great water-ways 
were the only routes by which the dense forests of the north- 
west could be penetrated. Men from New England were 
already settled at the mouth of the Connecticut, and a 
boundary dispute therefore was inevitable. If the men of 
New Amsterdam were hard, the pioneers who had gone out 
with the deliberate purpose of pushing forward the bounds of 
the English race were harder still. The Connecticut did not 
fall to the Dutch although they retained Hartford for a time as 
an isolated trading post. 

There was however greater danger from the French. The 
L ~._ t, ,_ valley of the St Lawrence was separated from New 

b. The French. J .. . 

England by a densely wooded region impassable 
except by consent of the Indian tribes. The French had 
between 1603 and 1608 succeeded under the leadership of 
Champlain in making good their attempts to effect a settle- 
ment along the great river. Quebec was settled by him in 
the latter year and received permanent garrison. The great 
district of Acadia, including the New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia of to-day, was proclaimed a French colony and a strong 
settlement planted at Port Royal. This was destroyed by the 
Virginian colonists in 16 14, but Acadia was formally recog- 
nized as French in 1632. Twenty years before the founding 
of Boston the French were working their way along the basin 
of the St Lawrence and its southern tributaries. Like 



1603 — 1660.] and Indian attack. 109 

other explorers they were spurred on by hopes of find- 
ing a passage into the Pacific. Their early voyages along 
the coast as far south as Cape Cod formed later on the 
foundation of vague claims to New England. Such was their 
activity that in the year 1638 it was already plain that the 
expansion of the English settlements would in no long time 
find in the French frontier a barrier to further advance, whilst 
there was the still more serious danger of a French descent 
upon New England across the watershed of the St Law- 
rence. 

The Indian danger was closely associated with these 
encroachments. The French character has gen- 
erally lent itself more readily than the English 
to friendly relations with uncivilised peoples. It was no less 
true in North America in the 17th century than it is in 
Western Africa in the 19th. In Canada or New France, the 
French settler not seldom intermarried with the Indian. As 
hunter or trader he lived in their villages for months at a 
time ; he learnt their language, taught them Christian doctrine, 
made allies of them. The Jesuit was in turn missionary and 
political agent, and as Catholic and as Frenchman had no 
scruples in directing the forces of savagery against the heretics 
of New England. 

Besides the needs of defence against foreign enemies which 
might become urgent at any moment there were . . 
possible difficulties with the autocratic regime of ference from 
the mother country. Charters were far from ome " 
secure : Laud had shewn himself eager to deal with Massa- 
chusetts when opportunity offered. The first attempt at 
creating a Colonial department of the English Government in 
1634 was inspired by his desire to bring New England to 
its proper obedience. The demand for the surrender of the 
charter of 1629 was ignored in Boston and royal action was 
prevented by the Scottish troubles. But to avert future dangers 
of the same kind co-operation was specially desirable. 



no Newfoundland settled, [CH. III. 

Articles of confederation were agreed upon in 1643. The 
instinct of independent government was so keenly 
F^eTaUon.** felt in the individual colonies, that the outbreak 
of the Civil War alone availed to bring about 
adhesion to a scheme of conjoint action. Plymouth, Newhaven, 
Connecticut and Massachusetts were the four parties to the 
union: Rhode Island and Maine were expressly excluded. 
The right to manage internal affairs was abundantly secured : 
but a league for offence and defence, mutual advice and 
succour, was organised. Commissioners, two from each mem- 
ber of the league, met when needed to determine affairs of 
peace and war, division of spoils, extension of the federation 
and all matters hanging therefrom. Fighting levies and war 
costs were proportioned to the adult male population. Herein 
lay the germ of many disputes. Massachusetts contributed 
most both in men and money. Her position gave her the 
dominant voice in deliberations, and no important step in 
policy could be taken against her will. The main achievement 
of the union which lived a vigorous life for 20 years and 
lingered on till 1684, was the war with New Amsterdam in 
1652, when the English boundary was pushed up within ten 
miles of the Hudson. Besides, the existence of a united policy 
tended to preserve the colonies as a whole from capricious 
interference from home. The union was interesting as the 
first experiment in federation, and revealed at once capacity for 
combination in the presence of external danger, and the tenacity 
of the instinct of autonomy which rendered that combination 
precarious and rarely effective. 



A few words will suffice to describe the efforts at settlement 

north of New England. Newfoundland, since 

iandand U Lord its discovery by 'the Cabots, had been known to 

Baltimore, Europe chiefly for its valuable fishery, which 

attracted every summer boats from English, 



1603 — 1660.] and abandoned: Nova Scotia. in 

Breton and Basque harbours. After Sir Humphrey Gilbert's 
death his rights fell into abeyance. Bristol merchants seem to 
have attempted settlement in 16 10 : but in 16 12 Sir G. 
Calvert (afterwards Lord Baltimore) acquired the island by 
patent from James I with wide privileges of self-government 
and of trade. Baltimore, himself a Catholic, induced certain 
co-religionists to accompany him : this caused misgiving in 
Virginia and Plymouth and in the plantation itself. The 
hardships of the climate and the constant attacks of the 
French during the war of 162 5- 1628 drove the founder to seek 
more genial surroundings. The island produced nothing but 
furs and was difficult of exploration. With the King's consent 
Baltimore withdrew to Virginia and ultimately to Maryland, 
and the sovereign rights of England were again dormant. 
The island never passed into the hands of another power, but 
it remained, as before, without organised occupation, until the 
Peace of Utrecht. 

De Monts, a comrade of Champlain, had, under a patent 
from the French Crown, in 1604, a year of great 
significance in French colonisation, settled a few i6^ ova Scotia ' 
fishermen and woodcutters at a spot on the 
Bay of Fundy, named by him Port Royal, now called Anna- 
polis. The settlement, a struggling hamlet, was destroyed by 
a crew of Virginians under Captain Argall in 1 6 1 3, on the plea 
that the new-comers were "intruders," a plea which was equally 
true of the English themselves in the eyes of French and Span- 
ish diplomatists. In 162 1 James I granted to Sir William 
Alexander and his Scottish co-adventurers a great area bounded 
by the St Lawrence, the river St Croix in Maine, and the 
Atlantic, claimed by the French as their province of Acadia 
and now called New Scotland or Nova Scotia. The charter 
was enlarged by Charles I by grant of rights of defence 
against Spain and France, and many Scotch settlers were taken 
over. The war with France at once involved the settlers of 
the two powers in America. Quebec was taken in 1628, and 



112 The West Indian Islands. [CH. III. 

with Quebec the whole of New France was lost to the French 
Crown. For a short time French sovereignty in America was 
at an end. In 1629 a British Canada Company for fur-trading 
was founded, in which Scotland was specially interested. But 

by the Peace of St Germains (1632) everything 
French a i632. was restore d, in spite of urgent protests from the 

Scottish promoters, and Alexander's colonists 
returned. The English Crown now retained nothing on the 
mainland north of the Kennebec river in Maine. While 
Frenchmen explored the Great West of Upper Canada English 
enterprise was opening up a new field far to the south, in 
Spanish waters. 

The English in the West Indies. 

Before the death of James I the Spanish sphere of 
influence in the West Indies had been avowedly 
indlLs^os! invaded. The Spaniards, in their desire to secure 
the mineral wealth of the mainland and the 
possession of the larger Antilles, had neglected as unimportant 
the outer fringe of small islands known to English navigators 
as the Leeward and Windward Islands. At the beginning of 
the 17th century the natives of these islands remained still 
undisturbed. They were of a fiercer nature than the helpless 
tribes who had so quickly died out in Cuba, and European 
sailors who touched at Dominica or Barbados had found them 
hostile and dangerous. The settlement of these islands there- 
fore falls within the period when the Dutch and the French, 
rather than the Portuguese and the Spaniard, were the active 
colonising peoples. 

We may note, in the first place, that the West Indies 
which now form part of the Empire belong historically to 
three groups. First, islands originally settled and always 
retained by men of English race ; such as Barbados. 
Secondly, islands settled by Spaniards and acquired by 
English conquest; such as Jamaica and Trinidad. Thirdly, 



1603 — 1660.] Geographical significance of t/te Islands. 113 

islands colonised by English, French or other Europeans, and 
afterwards passed from one power to the other as so many 
items of international negotiation ; such were St Lucia, Grenada 
and most of the smaller Antilles. 

The second fact of importance is involved in the geo- 
graphical position of the West Indies. They formed the first 
avenue of approach to the American continent in 1492. The 
voyage thither always involved less risk, hardship and delay 
than the north Atlantic passage to New France or New Eng- 
land. The geographical position also links closely together 
the West Indies with Western Africa. The voyage from 
Europe was usually made by the Canaries or Cape de Verde 
Islands, an easy route with a short ocean passage and a gene- 
rally favourable wind in the north-eastern trade. The face of 
the West Indies turns really to the East, and thus the 
Portuguese, essentially, in the 16th century, an African power, 
early acquired Brazil ; and Hawkins, as we have seen, a trader 
to North-west Africa, extended his affairs to the Caribbean Sea. 
Even in our own time naval strategy regards the Cape de 
Verde Islands as a natural base of operations in Central 
American waters. This geographical connection gave rise to 
and perpetuated the most important economic factor in the 
development of the West Indies — negro slavery. 

Thirdly, they were, with their adjoining mainlands, for a 
long time regarded in Europe as the most valuable part of 
America. It was, for instance, debated in 1763 whether 
Canada might not be profitably exchanged for one or more 
West Indian islands. It is necessary, then, to put aside the 
present-day conception of the relative significance of New 
England or Canada on the one hand and our struggling West 
Indian possessions on the other. 

The first soil in the West Indies proper claimed for the 
English Crown was Barbados in the year 1605, Theim ort- 
But the landing of Sir Olave Leigh was not ance of 
followed by effective occupation till 1624, when Barbados - 

w. e. 8 



1 14 Barbados. [cH. III. 

one Richard Courten, a London merchant, despatched a body 
of settlers to take possession of the island. Courten acted by 
the authority of the Earl of Marlborough, to whom James I 
had conveyed by charter territorial rights over the island. 
It is characteristic of Stuart indifference to English expansion 
that two years later Charles I granted an almost identical 
patent to the Earl of Carlisle, by which he acquired all 
Caribbean Islands not actually occupied by Spain. The dis- 
putes between proprietors were ultimately compounded at the 
expense of the settlers in Barbados. Barbados has never 
either by capture or by treaty passed to the hands of a foreign 
power. By the year 1636 there were 6,000 English settlers in 
the island. London merchants took up blocks of land from 
the proprietors and sent out settlers at their own expense. 
Political troubles at home stimulated emigration, which during 
the Civil War became still more active. Men of means, largely 
Royalist country gentlemen, carried what wealth they could get 
together to invest in plantations, worked like those of Virginia 
by imported labour, white or black. Before the end of the 
century Barbados had the reputation of being one great garden, 
a rival in fertility to the Dutch Spice Islands. The planters 
were in the main substantial people, anxious, like the Virginians, 
to be left alone to develop their industry. But, like them also, 
they were keenly alive to the advantages of self-government. 
In 1639 they had already attained representative institutions; 
they had their usual quarrels with the Governor from home, 
and found the proprietary rights a burden which in 1663 was 
commuted for an annual charge. The Royalist sentiment 
of the people led to the proclamation of Charles II in 1650, 
and the Anglican settlement was reaffirmed. But under 
threat of attack by the Parliamentary fleet in 1652 a com- 
promise was arrived at by which Barbados retained her 
powers of self-government and was guaranteed against inter- 
ference from the home Parliament, in which, as she pro- 
tested, the island had no representatives. 



1603 — 1660.] Its trade and population. 115 

The chief industry of Barbados, typical in this respect of 
the West Indies generally, was sugar-growing, T he elements 
introduced apparently about 1640 from Brazil, ofitspopuia- 
and worked on a large scale by slave labour. 
The victims of political crises at home were in the second half 
of the century constantly exported to the island, as by Crom- 
well after his reduction of Ireland and of Scotland ; those who 
survived the voyage and the hardships of their new life attained, 
after a period of service, both liberty and citizenship. Scots- 
men, it was noted, proved more useful settlers than Irishmen. 
A system of kidnapping in the large English towns pro- 
vided other elements of similar temporary white slavery, 
which was usually more cruel, by reason of the climate, than 
indentured service in the tobacco-fields in Virginia. These 
white bondservants, attaining their freedom after a term of 
years, proved as a whole a better element of the population 
than the corresponding class in Carolina. The negro was 
commercially worth more than the white servant, and gradually 
took his place. Before the end of the 17th century he 
constituted two-thirds of the population of the island. 

The trade of Barbados, like that of other American colonies, 
was, before the Navigation Acts, almost exclu- 

. , . & Its trade. 

sively earned on by the Dutch, who, from their 
busy trading centre at Curagoa conducted nearly the whole of 
the intercolonial trade of America, and supplied both English 
and French settlements with European produce. The sugar 
trade between America and Europe was almost entirely in 
their hands. The threat of the English Parliament to forbid 
the trade of Barbados with the mother country was a more 
bitter cause of hostility than the execution of Charles I and a 
more potent argument for compromise than the English fleet. 

In Barbados, as in Virginia, the English colonist is seen in 
his practical aspect. He is a man of business Practical 
to whom self-government is a means to the main character of 
end of developing the possibilities of the new 

8—2 



1 1 6 The Leeward and Windward Islands. [CH. Ill 

home; a working compromise outweighs with him all 
questions of abstract political right ; though nowhere, unless in 
Virginia, was the sense of English kinship more keenly alive. 
The Barbados planter founded a family, and, though with 
frequent visits to England, identified himself with his new 
home. In all important respects Barbados was, throughout the 
17 th century, the social and political centre of English influence 
in the West Indies, and, next to Virginia and New England, 
the most prosperous and best-known English colony. She 
sent forth in her turn groups of settlers who set up new com- 
munities not only in other islands, but as far away as Carolina 
and the colonies northward. The island, which is about the 
size of the Isle of Wight, is still notable for the density of its 
population and the high cultivation of its soil. 

St Kitts (or St Christopher) was actually the first island to 
o. W14. a receive English settlers. The date of the first 

St Kitts and ... 

the Leewards: landing is given as 1623. Two years later, with 
1 23 ' Barbados, it was taken under royal protection, 

and in the same year the French formed a rival settlement 
on the other side of the island. The French 'Company of 
the Islands of America,' formed by Richelieu, and the Earl 
of Carlisle in England both obtained royal charters in the 
same year. But their representatives on the spot, being 
practical men, agreed to divide St Kitts between them, 
with the further proviso that war between their respective 
nations in Europe should not necessarily involve the island. 
This agreement is but an avowal of the principle, accepted 
both before and subsequently to this period, that the 
colonies of European states do not always follow the 
mother country in observing a state of peace or of war. 
The other islands of the Leeward group were partly settled 
from St Kitts: Nevis in 1628, Antigua and Montserrat in 
1632, Dominica receiving its settlers from the French planta- 
tion in the same island. 

The first attempt to colonise St Lucia in 1638 originated 



1 603 — 1 660.] Their progress. 1 1 7 

from St Kitts and the Bermudas conjointly ; Grenada from 
the French island of Martinique in 1650. But The wind . 
in the case of these two islands, as also of St ward islands : 

, r • l6 3 8 ' 

Vincent, the occupation was mostly of an in- 
effective temporary kind. Both the English and the French 
Crowns included them within the Commissions granted to their 
respective Governors, and their final destiny was determined 
as English possessions by war rather than by settlement. The 
growth of population was more marked in the Leewards than 
in the Windwards. St Kitts, the most fertile of them, and 
Antigua, were most favourably known to London merchants. 
In all cases the negroes formed by the end of the century 
some three-fourths of the population. This at once indicates 
the nature of the cultivation. Sugar was, as in Barbados, a 
staple crop worked by slave labour with a small admixture 
of indentured white servants. But indigo, tobacco, ginger, 
were also produced, though in much smaller quantities. 

The political institutions of the smaller islands have not 
the same continuity as those of Barbados, 
partly for reasons arising out of the haphazard ^ons. in8tl 
nature of their settlement, and partly from their 
changes of European ownership. A definite attempt at fede- 
ration of the Leeward group, with, at the same time, the 
uniform creation of local assemblies, was instituted in 1689. 
A Legislature of two chambers, one nominated by the Crown 
and one elected by the planters, was provided for each island, 
whilst a federal Legislature representing the whole group under 
the presidency of a Governor-in-chief was appointed to meet as 
required. The difficulties of intercommunication, the absence of 
any specific business, and the futility of combination for defence 
against an European fleet rendered federal action nugatory. 

The relative positions of the French and English settlers 
in the smaller Antilles clearly left room for 
future dispute. As a matter of fact the islands r eiations° reign 
were, with the notable exception of Barbados, 



Il8 The Bermudas. [CH. III. 

tossed from one power to the other as the result of war or 
negotiation. But for the most part the Leeward Islands re- 
mained English. The activity of the planters at St Kitts first 
aroused the Spaniards to the fact that their sphere of influence 
was suffering encroachment. An attack on this island in 
1629 was disastrous to the plantation, for 600 Englishmen 
were carried off to Spanish prisons. Charles I, as usual, 
ignored the outrage, whilst Cromwell recalled it as one of 
his grounds for his war with Spain. It was not until the 
Treaty of Madrid in 1670 that Spain formally recognised the 
presence of her European rivals in the Caribbean Sea. 

The Bermudas form a natural halting place between the 
tu M _xu North American colonies and the West Indies, 

1 tie Nortn- ' 

eriy islands: and their history has an interest hardly surpassed 
(a) the Ber- j™ any f the English settlements in the American 

mudas : 1609. J J °. 

ocean. The Spaniards, dreading with good reason 
the storms that swept their coasts, gave them that evil repu- 
tation which Raleigh, Lancaster, and Champlain confirmed by 
their reports, and which survives in Shakespeare's <£ still- 
vexed Bermoothes" (The Tempest, produced 1611). The 
wreck of Sir George Somers on his way to Virginia (1609) 
proved a turning point in the estimation of this isolated group. 
Becoming favourably known both in Virginia and in England 
for their equable climate, the absence of natives and great 
wealth of game, they passed first into the hands of the Virginia 
Company in 161 2, and shortly afterwards, as the "plantation 
of the Somers' Islands," were made over to a separate com- 
pany. The settlers were not numerous but conducted profitable 
trade in tobacco with the mother country, and following the 
example of Virginia they acquired representative government 
a year later, as early as 1620. The population consisted of 
planters cultivating their own land or managing estates of the 
freeholders at home, worked by white bondservants of the 
usual West Indian type, and even by Indian slaves shipped 
from the American mainland. Disputes were frequent between 



1603 — 1660] The Bahamas. 119 

Puritan and Royalist Churchmen, the latter of whom were 
in the majority. The islands yielded allegiance to the 
Commonwealth, but only, like Barbados, under threat. As 
the population increased (about 15,000 were found at one time 
within the small area of 19 square miles) the relations between 
the settlers and the Company became irksome. Once more 
the rights of distant proprietors and their trade monopoly 
gave way before the demands of the settlers. The Company 
was dissolved in 1684 and the Bermudas became a Crown 
Colony. 

The Bahamas, a much larger and more frequented group, 
has the distinction of including the first land 
sighted by Columbus in the eventful voyage hamas: 1646* 
of 1492. But after being depopulated by the 
Spaniards for the supply of slave labour to Hispaniola, they 
seem to have been neglected until the planters of Bermuda 
established settlements on two or three of the islands between 
1646 and 1 666. The Bahamas therefore were left untouched 
by the main stream of European colonisation. Not until 1670 
were the islands definitely incorporated as a colony under the 
patent of the Carolina Company (see p. 146). The charter 
provided a representative body and an executive of the usual 
pattern. The Company made no efforts to develop the islands. 
The settlers were few, were adventurous rather than industrious, 
and earned a reputation for piracy and wrecking, to which 
the geography of the group readily lent itself. Under these 
circumstances neither political nor agricultural progress was 
feasible. The Company did nothing for the colony, which, 
as a nest of pirates, was sternly taken in hand by the home 
Government in the reign of George I. 

There remains the most important of our West Indian pos- 
sessions : the island of Jamaica. The Spaniards 
had done little or nothing to turn to account co J n a q ™ered i6 55 . 
the great fertility of this island, which they re- 
garded chiefly as a place of call and centre of supply for 



120 The conquest of Jamaica. [ch. III. 

their fleets. Agriculturally Jamaica was neglected by them for 
Cuba and Hispaniola. The latter island was the objective of 
the expedition of 1654 fitted out by Cromwell to punish Spain 
for repeated outrages in West Indian waters. Defeated in their 
main purpose the fleet captured Jamaica without difficulty in 
May, 1655. The treaty of Madrid (1670) confirmed the con- 
quest. 

Charles II in 1662 appointed the first civil governor, with 
an executive council of judges and administrative officials^ 
with an elective assembly. It was specially proclaimed that 
all freeborn English subjects, i.e. all children born of English 
parents in Jamaica, should have full rights of British citizenship. 
The conflicts between the assembly and the home Government 
were frequent and acute. It was attempted to place Jamaica 
on the footing of Ireland, in the sense of making legislation 
for Jamaica depend upon the initiative of the English Par- 
liament. The colonists, now a prosperous and energetic body, 
secured by their persistence a renewal in 1680 of their earlier 
privileges. The island had contained at the time of its con- 
quest but a handful of Portuguese and half-caste Spaniards, 
part only of whom submitted. The first step taken by Crom- 
well was to invite Puritan settlers from New England who 
should give a Protestant stamp to the colony. This had 
but slight effect. The population was chiefly collected from 
such unpromising sources as political victims from Ireland, 
vagrants from Scotland, criminals and wastrels from the streets 
of London, who provided the labour for planters of experience 
from Nevis and the Bermudas. Ample room, a fertile soil, 
and a strong government served to unite these incongruous 
elements into a fairly prosperous community. A standing 
danger to the colony was created by the maroons, the slaves 
of the Spanish planters who had fled to the mountains upon 
the English conquest. Conciliation failed from the outset. 
Reduction by force proved for a century and a half tedious 
and difficult, and not till the middle of the 19th century was 



1 603 — 1 660.] Colonial policy ; 1 603 — 1 660. 1 2 1 

the breach between descendants of the fugitive negroes and 
the English community finally healed. 

Jamaica sugar early commanded a preferential price in 
London, and after 1 660 tobacco and indigo were 
neglected for the cane. Sugar plantation, as d u*tr^" 
elsewhere, implied slave labour. Negroes rapidly 
outnumbered the whites. Kingston, founded after the de- 
struction of Port Royal by earthquake in 1692, became the 
chief centre of commerce and of social life. Its irregular trade 
with the American colonies was, as to Barbados, an important 
source of wealth, which was further increased by its friendly 
connection with the Buccaneers, who were the strongest power 
in the Caribbean Sea in the latter portion of the 17th century. 



The Home Country and its Colonial Policy. 

The motives to English plantation were at their original 
formulation in the sixteenth century (see p. 40) 

n , , , . v ft/ Relations 

conceived by the mother country in no narrow of England to 
or self-regarding spirit. There were probably commex«ia? : 
always two currents of opinion on the subject; 
the one looking to the expansion of the English name and 
race, and drawing but slight distinction between the interests of 
the colony and those 01 the parent state : the other, slowly 
becoming the dominant view, holding a plantation as contrived 
in the special interest of home prosperity. Lord Bacon, in his 
Essay on Plantations, and Sandys, the broad-minded Puritan 
leader, took the nobler view, and could "look at the mother 
and the daughters with an equal and indifferent (i.e. impartial) 
eye, remembering that a colony is a part and member of her own 



122 Crown rights in Colonial exports. [CH. III. 

body." But the trend of opinion in the Government, the City 
of London, amongst merchants and promoters of colonisation, 
took by degrees another direction, and found by the middle 
of the seventeenth century its expression in the Navigation 
Acts of 1 65 1 and 1660. 

It must be clearly understood that the spirit of the Acts 
Traditi nai was * n no sense revolutionary. As far back as 
trade policy of the reign of Richard II (1382) it was enacted 
that no goods should be exported from, or im- 
ported into, England except in vessels whose owners were 
subjects of the Crown. This attempt to increase the mercan- 
tile marine was repeated in subsequent reigns, and notably by 
that master of statecraft, Thomas Cromwell. 

Lack of English vessels, however, rendered the law in- 
effective, but the principle was never lost sight of. Early 
colonisers held out the increase of shipping as one of their 
chief aims. The growing trade of Virginia, Barbados, and 
Massachusetts inevitably raised the entire question of trade 
policy. A statesman of the 17 th century could argue that the 
colonies, so far from being exceptionally oppressed after 165 1, 
had been exceptionally favoured before that date : for the Act 
of that year simply asserted a principle of trade legislation 
accepted by Englishmen for 200 years. 

The trade relations of England to the colonies involved, 

first, the interests of the Crown. By their charter 

trade and or otherwise specific privileges were granted 

Crown by the king : such as relief in payment of 

revenue. . J ■> r • 

import dues for a long term of years, aid in 
securing settlers, restrictions on growth of tobacco in England, 
heavy duties on that of Spanish origin, and so on. Again, 
the king undertook the diplomatic or military support of the 
settlers in disputes with France, Spain, or Holland : for with- 
out the protection of the English name weak and isolated 
settlements might fall an easy prey to ambitious powers. In 
return for these advantages the Crown began to look for 



1603 — 1660.] The Navigation Act of 165 1. 123 

compensation in the customs payable upon colonial imports 
into England. By 1620 it was perceived that mjuch revenue 
might accrue from tobacco. In 162 1 it was ordered by the 
Privy Council that all Virginian tobacco exported must be 
first landed in England and pay duty. This was opposed both 
in Virginia and in London, as ' contrary to the rights of free 
Englishmen,' who were entitled to sell their products where 
they pleased; in 1624 it was further ordered that no , foreign 
vessels should be employed in trade between Virginia and 
Europe, but this was promptly ignored. Customs duties were 
favourable to Virginia and Barbados: their tobacco in 1631 
paid one shilling per pound, reduced later to fourpence; the 
Spanish product paid two shillings, and its import was expressly 
limited by law. In 1636 one Virginian cargo alone paid 
^3,300 in customs duty. By the middle of the century it 
was generally accepted that the Crown was entitled to its dues 
on the entire produce of a colony exported to Europe. It 
was not yet admitted that such produce must pass first of 
all through an English customs-house. 

The Navigation Act of 1651 was passed not in the interests 
of the State revenue but in the interests of 
English shipping. The Act, indeed, had a t ion ActTrtsi, 
double motive. Its aim was, in the first place, * n ? E . n eNsh 

shipping. 

to punish the Dutch for their hard, exclusive 
policy in the far East, especially for the judicial murders of 
Amboyna in 1623. These outrages had left on the English 
mind of that age the impression which the events at Cawnpore 
produced upon the generation that saw the Indian Mutiny. 
In the second place, Englishmen perceived that, so far from 
stimulating the national marine and enriching English merchants, 
our colonial prosperity mainly profited our rivals the Dutch as 
the great ship-owning power of the world. This Parliament 
determined to remedy. The Act required that all goods 
brought into this country from Asia, Airica, or America shall 
be imported direct, i.e. by sea-routes, in ships owned, captained 



124 The Act of 1660. [CH. III. 

and chiefly manned by English subjects, including in these, of 
course, our colonists. The blow to Dutch shipping was over- 
whelming, and threatened it with financial ruin. The first Dutch 
war (1652-54) was the immediate result. But it gravely affected 
the interests of the colonists. The Dutch were the carriers 
of America and of Europe. Their freights were the cheapest, 
their warehouses the most commodious, their markets the 
best frequented. The loss of the advantage of this efficient 
transport involved to the planter both delay and increased cost 
in handling his produce. English shipping had now a legal 
monopoly of the national over-sea commerce, and it was wholly 
unequal to the sudden demand. Hence came higher prices 
for colonial produce in Europe, with consequent smaller trade, 
diminished profit to the planter, and risk that new and com- 
peting sources of supply might be created. The Dutch and 
the French, for instance, at once began to grow tobacco. Had 
the Act been rigorously enforced, the trade of Virginia and 
Barbados — the island trade was exclusively Dutch — would have 
been utterly disorganised. But the colonies, aided by their 
Governors, evaded the Act ; and Virginia and Barbados, though 
with increasing difficulty, continued, for a time, to export to 
New England or to Europe as before. 

The second Act, passed immediately on the Restoration, again 
shows how strongly commercial motives controlled 

3' A N f vi £ a " colonial policy. It was enacted (1) that certain 

tion Act, 1660, r j \ / 

and English " enumerated " products — sugar, tobacco, dyes, 
manufacture. gi n g er j Dut excluding grain and timber — should 
be exported only to England or to another 
colony ; to further secure this, foreign factors were not allowed 
to reside in an English colony; (2) that all commodities 
imported into a colony must be shipped from England only. 
The provisions respecting the employment of English vessels 
were reaffirmed. The object of (1) was to make England the 
central selling market of the Empire, of (2) to make England 
the chief source of manufactured goods consumed. 



of trade as- 
cendancy. 



1603 — 1660.] ' Trade Ascendancy? 125 

Thus the three points which must be kept clear in esti- 
mating the relations of mother country and 

, : . . - . , . , General ef- 

colonies in financial and commercial aspects are fects of policy 
these : (a) the Crown right to customs on colonial 
produce ; this is accepted : {b) the desire to 
stimulate English and colonial shipping — partly at least from 
motives of national security : {c) the claim of merchant and 
manufacturer at home to the first profits upon colonial pro- 
ducts and requirements. As yet there was no question of 
manufacture in the colonies ; when need arose that was sternly 
repressed. But the policy of trade ascendancy and the 
mercantile system is now formally expressed ; and it is in the 
power of the steadily increasing middle-class to apply the 
policy with selfish rigidity in its own interests. Although the 
effect of the Acts upon the growth of the merchant shipping of 
the country was most favourable, the colonies, often sup- 
ported by their Governors, regarded their operation with 
intense resentment; and we are already in presence of one, 
perhaps the chief, of the deep-seated causes which led up to 
the crisis of 1776. We have long since recognised that this 
narrow policy, whilst it may be explained, is in no way justified, 
by the traditional principles of primitive English trade. Yet 
we must not forget that the ministers of Charles II or 
George II were but pursuing a system upon which France, 
who alone has an external dominion which admits of com- 
parison with our own, bases her colonial empire to-day. 

Speaking generally it is true that plantations in their earlier 
stages are costly experiments to their promoters 

° _ . . , , . 7™ • r . Th e attitude 

and unprofitable to the sovereign, lnis tact ofjamesiand 
gives the clue to the policy of James I and his ^^"nies 
son in colonial affairs. James was incapable of 
taking a large view of any subject ; and when he interfered in 
this particular department his motive was generally unworthy 
or evil. In hope of revenue he had at first patronised the 
Virginia Company; as none came he ignored it; at a hint 



126 The general policy of the Crown, 1603 — 1649. [CH. III. 

from Spain he suppressed it. He was indifferent to the Dutch 
charter of New Amsterdam, to the loss of the far-eastern 
trade, to the outrages at Amboyna. To gratify the greed of 
Buckingham he deliberately robs the East India Company, in 
1624, of ^20,000; to curry favour with Madrid he executes 
Raleigh. The navy reaches a depth of inefficiency unknown since 
Henry VIII took it in hand. If James would not defend his 
subjects abroad, Charles could not. The navy, indeed, re- 
ceived attention under the impulse of Selden's famous claim for 
the English monopoly of the Channel and the North Sea ; for 
ten years at least toleration and wholesome non-interference 
marked his policy towards Virginia and New England. But 
the careless grants of patents to courtiers continued : as in the 
case of Barbados (see p. 114), and of the East Indies (p. 80). 
America is regarded by the king as a convenient safety-valve 
for religious or political discontent. Canada, captured in 
1628, is promptly restored to France, and Nova Scotia and 
its settlers left to their fate. Under Laud, however, a new 
spirit animates the home Government. In 1634 a Commission 
was issued to him and other officers of State for making laws 
and orders for the government of plantations, with power to 
impose penalties for ecclesiastical offences, to call for Charters 
and to revoke them. This was an attempt to apply a policy of 
'Thorough' to England beyond the sea. Massachusetts was 
at once called to account, but refused to remit its Charter for 
review. The troubles in Scotland and Laud's execution put 
an end to a policy which had not originated, perhaps, with the 
king. But the New England settlers were henceforth actively 
hostile to the monarchy, and supplied, in Vane and others, 
powerful helpers to the Puritan cause. 

In Cromwell we see an imperial statesman of the first 

Cromwell order: "perhaps the only Englishman who has 

and the Em- ever understood in its full sense the word 

Empire" (Egerton). The fleet is rapidly brought 

to a state of efficiency. Barbados, Virginia, New England, 



1603 — 1660.] Cromwell and tlie Empire. 1 27 

accept the authority of Parliament. The outstanding claims 
against Holland for the Amboyna murders are presented, and 
quickly settled (1654) by the cession of a large sum: her fleet 
after an isolated victory in the Channel is humiliated by Blake 
(1653): the Navigation Act of 165 1 proves in its working a 
still more disastrous blow. Against Spain Cromwell wages war 
in the old Elizabethan spirit. Jamaica is acquired as a set-off 
against many grievous outrages in the Caribbean Sea, notably 
that of St Kitts in 1629 (see p. 118). Throughout his policy, 
indeed, Cromwell continues the school of Raleigh, with its 
union of religious zeal, imperial spirit, and mercantile aims. 
Foreign powers perceive that England has once more a man 
in command — a ruler who can fight both by sea and by land, 
who will not yield a foot of the English inheritance, and 
who, patriotic and incorruptible, is untouched by the dynastic 
and personal motives which governed his predecessors. At the 
Restoration the fall of Spain, the decline of Holland, the 
security of the English in America, the growth of our ocean 
commerce, are the dominant facts in policy. 



The Navy of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. 

In the history of the English Navy the decade 1649-59 * s 
hardly less memorable than that of 1586-96. 

A period of 

Under Charles I Buckingham alone endeavoured peat naval ac- 
to restore the Navy to efficiency ; after his death x ™ ty l649— 
the fleet steadily decayed with the increase of 
the domestic troubles. Up to 1642 one or at most two ships 
were built yearly ; after that date none were added. But from 
1649 ships were ordered 'by tens at a time'; in one year 
(1654) twenty-two new vessels — equal to one half of the navy 
of 1647 — were launched. Under the Commonwealth naval 
policy was clearly conceived and carried into execution with a 



128 The Navy in the Dutch War, 1652-4. [CH. III. 

persistence impossible even to Hawkins and Drake. A power- 
ful fleet was maintained ready for action in the Downs, 
guarding Dover and the Thames.' Cruisers patrolled the 
entire coasts of the kingdom. The Mediterranean for the first 
time saw a permanent English squadron, whilst another was 
stationed in the West Indies, detaching vessels to watch for 
privateers as far north as New England. This naval activity 
was primarily compelled by the defection of a part of the royal 
fleet in 1648 under Prince Rupert. But here, again, the 
commercial motive became as usual the dominant one; and 
the navy was maintained as part of the policy by which the 
Dutch were ousted from the carrying trade of the English 
world. 

The strength of the navy which was thus ready to hand to 

enforce the purpose of the Navigation Act was 
war 1652—4. revealed in the war with Holland which the Act 

provoked. In 1650 the Dutch were far the 

strongest maritime power in Europe : as a nation they were 

rich, enterprising and united. England was distracted, weak 

Reasons for at sea » anc * financially ruined. But the energy 

English sue- f the Admiralty was astounding. In two years, 

by dint of first-rate administration and of good 
seamanship rather than of superiority of commanders, the 
Dutch were brought to sue for peace. It is instructive to note 
the causes of this success. Naval officials were now chosen by 
merit, not as for fifty years past by court favour ; officers had 
learnt their work, often, no doubt, on land under Fairfax or 
Cromwell, in a stern school; they were prompt, energetic, 
patriotic, like all Cromwell's men. Sailors were on the whole 
well treated and regularly paid. Ships were new and of good 
design ; stores plentiful ; artillery and powder of the right type 
and amount. Naval repairing bases were properly equipped 
with plant and artificers. The Dutch, on the other hand, 
though with four times the number of seamen to draw upon, 
including the best naval material of all — the deep-sea fishermen, 



1603 — 1660.] The Navy of the Protectorate. 129 

with better command of vessels and building yards, and with 
infinite ready money — yet lacked organisation and swiftness of 
executive. Perhaps also they were too rich to venture much, 
and recognised that they were now not dealing with James I. 
So when their slow-sailing, heavily-laden merchantmen were 
caught in the Atlantic or in the Channel and sold in the 
Thames and at Portsmouth — 1500 prizes in all were taken 
from the Dutch during the two years, 1652-4 — they found it 
best to yield. Their power was not destroyed, but the misery 
inflicted on the industrial population, dependent on foreign 
commerce, by the loss of the command of the sea compelled 
the Government to sue for peace. Nor was Cromwell keen to 
fight the Protestant Dutch; it was hardly his war. So the 
Dutch captains, sorely grudging, dipped their flag in salute 
of English vessels when they passed them in the Channel and 
the North Sea, in recognition of the supremacy of England in 
the Narrow Seas. 

To Cromwell the enemy was Catholic Spain. The Dutch 
peace, therefore, brought no remission of activity. The N 
Naval ship-building was centred in the Thames under crom- 
and at Portsmouth. Cromwell had at his com- 
mand half-a-dozen new vessels of over 1000 tons burden, 
carrying on the average 80 guns apiece; a much larger number 
of smaller ships of 500 tons or thereabouts, and a cloud of 
small fast-sailing craft, gun-boats or light cruisers, designed to 
chase privateers. The type of armament had not been greatly 
modified since Elizabeth's day. The demi-cannon, firing a 
30 lb. shot, was still the usual heavy ordnance ; the culverin, 
with a 17 lb. shot, the long-range chaser. For their tonnage 
Cromwell's vessels were heavily armed and cumbrous to look 
at. As the Protector revived the Elizabethan policy in foreign 
affairs, so his Admiralty, officers and crews were filled with the 
spirit of Raleigh and Grenville. One of the admirals writes 
before setting sail, "All that look towards Zion should hold 
Christian communion — we have all the guns aboard." 

W. E. 9 



130 Cost of the Navy. [CH. III. 

The cost of the Navy was appalling. Even in these days 
of heavy naval estimates we are startled to read 

andks'cost! tnat m l6 53 out °f t ' ie tota ^ national revenue 
of ^2,600,000 ^1,500,000 was devoted to the 
Admiralty. In the Protectorate this proportion was by 
no means exceptional; and debt was incurred in addition. 
Cromwell, we must remember, was the one ruler of this 
country who has succeeded in making England dominant at 
once by land and sea in European affairs. The task would, 
we cannot doubt, have proved too onerous even for him to 
sustain. The burden of it was borne for a time by the pro- 
ceeds of confiscated estates — a draft upon national capital. 
And the taxation that gradually followed, with the growing 
weight of indebtedness, contributed prominently to the un- 
popularity of his rule and to the Restoration which followed. 



i3i 



CHAPTER IV. 
1660 — 1740. 

THE SUPREMACY OF THE MERCANTILE INTEREST. 

During the period 1660 — 1740 the relations of England 
to her Colonies become more clearly defined. We may dis- 
tinguish three stages: from 1660 — 1675, trie period of intelli- 
gent colonial policy; from 1675 — 1690, the period of reaction; 
from 1690 onwards, the period of rigid trade ascendancy. 

The r'egime of the Restoration is not usually regarded by 
us with much satisfaction. But viewed on the colonial 
side of the expansion of the Empire the reign of policy, 1660- 
Charles II., for the first fifteen years, commands x 5 ' 
something akin to respect. The colonial policy of his ministers 
was seriously conceived and intelligently carried out. 

In the first place plantation was, as never before, under- 
taken as a National policy; mainly, no doubt, in 
the commercial interests of the kingdom, but Charactens- 
from the motive also of the expansion and (a)keeninte- 
defence of the Empire. Existing colonies re- JJSfiF'" 
ceived systematic attention. The Navigation 
Act of 1660, the new East India Company Charter, the 
organisation of a rudimentary Colonial Department, the support 
given in high quarters to the new ventures of Carolina, 
Hudson's Bay, Pennsylvania, suggest the many-sided activity 
of the administration in colonial affairs. Again, such men as 
Clarendon, Shaftesbury, Sydney, and Locke concern themselves 
not only with general policy but with the practical details of 
colonial administration ; and until we come to the elder Pitt 

9—2 



132 Aims of Colonial Policy. [CH. IV. 

we meet with no other statesman of note of whom this can be 
said. Clarendon said of himself that ' soon after the Restora- 
tion he used all the endeavours he could to bring his Majesty 
to have a great esteem for his Plantations and to encourage the 
improvement of them.' Clarendon showed indeed a broad and 
intelligent spirit in his colonial policy, and in Shaftesbury he 
found an able colleague and successor. It is hardly too much 
to say that no English politician for three-quarters of a century 
took so informed and statesmanlike a view of the relations of 
England to her colonies as did these two distinguished men. 
That they regarded the colonies as bound up with the mer- 
cantile prosperity of the kingdom and with national defence, and 
that they were, therefore, rarely able to see questions purely 
from the side of the colonist, is explained by the circumstances 
in which England found herself at the time. No European 
country, least of all this country, was strong enough or rich 
enough to afford a colonial policy which should be guided 
solely by the interests or sentiment of the colony itself. 

Hence the statesmen of Charles II. showed no intention of 
... The mo _ abandoning the attitude of the Commonwealth 
tive of Trade towards the Dutch. If the army was disbanded, 
the navy was kept ready for action ; the Dutch 
war which ended with the treaty of Breda (1667) was essen- 
tially a war for trade and sea-dominion. The Navigation Acts 
of 1 65 1 and 1660 were supported on the ground that the 
Empire could only be defended by aid of an overwhelming 
mercantile marine. Over-sea commerce and the security of 
the realm were thus two sides of one and the same necessity. 
The ability of the Dutch to menace our shores twice within a 
few years seemed to prove this, and compelled the broadest 
minds of the day, not more in the interests of the kingdom 
than of the colonies themselves, to persevere in spite of all risks 
with the policy of the Navigation Acts. 'A flourishing marine 
the sole defence of the realm ' was the watchword of the time, 
and its cogency outweighed all colonial pleas for trade equality. 



1660 — 1740.] Child's Discourse on Trade. 133 

The Acts were not framed merely on economic grounds, and 
to condemn them by such arguments is, whether easy or not, 
perfectly futile. Fiscal policy in the 17th century was a 
weapon of national defence. Undoubtedly, as a measure of 
protection for the mercantile marine of this country, the 
Navigation Acts were an extraordinary success. 

As, however, we might expect, the mercantile interest in 
Court and Parliament pressed the doctrine of 
Trade Ascendancy in a narrower spirit than the C mm* ■&&!*' 
statesman of the day : and in the course of the 
following century it was this spirit which dominated national 
policy. The famous Discourse on Trade by Sir Josiah Child, 
banker, and Governor of the East India Company, is as typical 
of this period as is Gilbert's Discourse of that of Elizabeth. 
" It is evident that this kingdom is wonderfully fitted by the 
bounty of God Almighty for a great progression in wealth and 
power, and that the only means to arrive at both or either of 
them is to improve and advance trade." The example of the 
Dutch is ever present to his mind. The increase of their 
shipping, of their home and foreign trade, " is the envy of the 
present, and may be the wonder of future, generations." One 
cause of this lies in the practical temper of their statesmen : 
" they have in their greatest councils of state and war trading 
merchants, that have lived abroad in most parts of the world, 
who have not only the theoretical knowledge, but the practical 
experience, of trade, by whom laws and orders were contrived 
and peace with foreign princes projected." In particular the 
Dutch excel as ship-builders; their vessels cost far less to build 
and to work than English shipping. They are successful as 
traders, they command large capital, and rates of interest are 
much lower there than in England. Their government is 
cheaply done, light customs dues encourage imports, and 
religious liberty attracts people of energy from every intolerant' 
state in Europe. On the other hand they make poor colonists: 
Tobago and Curasao show none of the progress of Barbados 



134 The Acts of Navigation. [CH. IV. 

and Jamaica. He comes directly to the point of his argument: 
"for my part I am of opinion that in relation to Trade, 
Shipping, Profit and Power, the Act of Navigation is one of 
the choicest and most prudent Acts that was ever made in 
England, and without which we had not now been owners of 
one-half of the shipping nor trade, nor employed one-half of 
the seamen which we do at present." He instances Barbados : 
before 1651 nine out of ten of the ships laden there were 
Dutch, now they are English. The objections of the colonists 
he frankly allows : but it is an indefensible policy which 
' exports men ' {i.e. establishes plantations) for the sole benefit 
of Dutchmen. Child, like most English public men — Clarendon 
and Cromwell amongst them — does not like the attitude of 
New England. Their products competed in West Indian 
markets with those of the home country; they were skilful 
evaders of the Acts of Navigation; whilst they shared their 
advantages to the full in the stimulus given by them to the 
ship-building industry. Yet, as a careful business man, Child 
does not forget that New England is an admirable customer 
for English manufactured goods ; and he cautiously urges that 
if any reformation in the trading relations of those colonies is 
attempted, it must be done "with great tenderness and very 
serious circumspection." 

The Discourse enables us to understand the bitterness with 

which the colonies, without exception, regarded 

Colonies and the Acts of Trade. Child, typical in this respect 

the Acts of f t h e en tire mercantile interest, does not pro- 

Navigatton. ,,.... ,. 

perly realise the distinction between a trading 
Company like the East India Company and a corporate body 
of the English citizens settled in a new home. A Colony was 
to him, first of all, an investment by the State of men and 
money in a venture abroad, a course which could only be 
defended so long as the new community increased the wealth 
of the mother country. It is easy to see that by 'wealth' a 
broad-minded statesman might mean one thing, a keen but 



1660 — 1740.] The period of Reaction. 135 

narrow man of business something very different. As by 
degrees statesmen ignored the colonies the business man's 
view governed English policy. Here lay the real sore that 
rankled in the colonial mind : that men of English blood, 
carrying the name, the race and power of the kingdom to the 
verge of the wilderness, should be treated as competitors and 
not as equals; and that their part in the Empire should be 
regarded only in terms of the commercial interests of the 
mother country. It was a sympathy with this feeling that 
called for such protests as that of Willoughby, the Governor of 
the Caribbees (1667): "Whoever he be that advised his 
Majesty to restrain and tie up his Colonies in points of trade is 
more a merchant than a good subject." 

True as it undoubtedly is, that the growth of merchant 
shipping placed our naval power on a secure basis and 
rendered the Treaty of Utrecht possible, the colonist may be 
excused his scepticism of the motive. The Barbados planter 
remembered the solitary bomb-ketch that represented the navy 
in West Indian waters ; the Boston trader felt sorely the 
indifference of the Admiralty which allowed French privateers 
from Port-Royal or Louisbourg to harass New England 
shipping without let or hindrance. 

The latter years of the Stuart kings were marked by 
methods of colonial administration wholly dif- „, 

The period 

ferent from those of Clarendon or Shaftesbury, of Reaction, 
It was a period of reaction both at home and l675 ~ l69 °' 
abroad. The power of the Crown was unchecked, and was 
exercised in utter disregard of colonial rights or interests. 
The Governors are men of lower stamp, often grasping adven- 
turers ; charters are ignored, favouritism, corruption, rapacity 
are rife wherever the Crown can protect its creatures. The 
neglect of the navy, so pronounced in the last years of Charles 
II, is indeed to some extent remedied under his brother ; 
but, apart from this, the last Stuart king had little claim to 
consideration at the hands of the colonist. The traditional 



136 The Revolution and Colonial Policy. [CH. IV. 

distrust of the English Crown, so evident in the subsequent 
history of certain colonies, rested on their experiences of the 
royal advisers and Governors, and of the King himself, in the 
few years immediately preceding the Revolution. 

As a result of the Revolution settlement, Parliament dis- 
d pl ace d the King in Council in control of the 
Ascendancy, Colonies and chartered Companies. The change, 
1690— 1740. nQ (j ou b tj made for political freedom by relieving 

the Assemblies from the caprices of the Sovereign and his 
favourites. But at the same time the mercantile interest 
through the House of Commons at once acquired the chief 
voice in colonial policy. The need of an ocean trade was 
now an imperious one, for the struggle with France required 
new resources ; the National Debt could only be met by larger 
revenues, to be obtained directly and indirectly from over-sea 
commerce. Governors of the Plantations rarely identify them- 
selves with the political and material interests of the com- 
munities over which they are placed. They are rather the 
temporary guardians of the rights of the Crown. They re- 
present the narrower mercantile principle now dominant in the 
England of the Revolution : that the colonies should be kept 
in strict dependence upon the merchant and manufacturer of 
the mother country. The enforcement of the Navigation Acts 
becomes their more prominent duty, and they are instructed to 
report on attempts to establish industries which 
mons and might compete with home products in colonial 

colonial markets. Thus in 1699 Parliament was moved 

Industry. , ** 

to prohibit the export of woollen goods made in 
Virginia; in 17 19 a Bill actually passed both Houses (with- 
drawn) to forbid the erection of iron-works in America ; by Act 
of 1732 hats of colonial manufacture might not be exported 
from one colony to another, nor from any colony to Europe. At 
the same time duties were imposed to restrict the trade, profit- 
able and customary, if not strictly regular, between America and 
the French West Indies in sugar, spirits and other produce, 



i66o — 1740.] T/te Walpole Era. 137 

This interference with internal affairs was always resented, but, 
as it concerned trade and did not directly involve taxation, the 
legal right of Parliament was not seriously questioned. Even 
so staunch a friend of the colonies as Chatham, whilst opposing 
legislation of the mother country which affected colonial 
revenues, approved it in all that concerned colonial trade on 
the ground that it formed a constituent part of the commerce 
the Empire. 

The effect of the Treaty of Utrecht was to produce in 
England a sense of security as against all foreign 
rivals. England had now proved herself to be ^H^ °L 3 . 
the one sea-power of the world ; though neither 
she herself nor her rivals realised at once what that implied. 
Two important lessons of the 18th century were outlined by 
the war of the Spanish Succession. They were, that without 
control of the sea (a) colonial possessions are a definite source 
of weakness to an European state, and (b) foreign trade is a 
precarious basis of national prosperity. The visible spoils of 
the war were not large. Gibraltar was acquired from Spain. 
In America the chief problems were still left open, such as the 
boundaries of Acadia and the title to the Mississippi and the 
Great West. The Assiento Treaty accorded more tangible 
gains, finally surrendering in principle the doctrine, against 
which Hawkins had fought long ago, of the Mare Clausum of 
the Spanish West The right of English merchants to general 
trade with the American dependencies of Spain was now, 
however meagrely, admitted for the first time. 

The Walpole era was marked generally by indifference to 
colonial questions; even so prized an acquisition Th 
as Acadia was treated with neglect, and seeds of Era and the 
future difficulty thickly sown thereby. The Duke Colonies - 
of Newcastle was the Secretary of State responsible for the 
colonies from 1724. He stands in the history of the century 
as the type of ministerial laissez-faire. But his colleagues, the 
King, and Parliament itself showed no deeper concern in the lot 



138 Origin of a Colonial Department. [CH. IV. 

of the English beyond the seas. Governors were too often 
carelessly chosen and ill-supported. Their despatches, if read, 
were ignored ; the sentiment of the colonial tie was lost in its 
business aspect, and but for the menace of the French the 
American colonies might well have dropped off from the 
Empire half a century before 1776. Political indifference 
coupled with selfish trade interference was the characteristic 
of colonial policy at home from Utrecht to the fall of Walpole. 
From national unconcern sprang inevitably in the eighteenth 
century official jobbery. 

We may here note the gradual formation of a department 
of the colonies during the period 1660 — 1740. 

The begin- _,, . . ,° r , . ' .. 

ningsofa Plantations, it must be remembered, were until 
colonial the Revolution of 1688 strictly within the control 

Department. . J 

of the Crown, acting through the Privy Council. 
The Long Parliament had (1643) established a special Com- 
mission to deal with colonial affairs ; upon it sat such men as 
Pym and Cromwell. This temporary body was at the Restora- 
tion (Dec. 1660) replaced by a new Council of Trade and 
Plantations, which contained representatives of the great incor- 
porated Companies and other merchants, following in this 
respect the example of the Dutch Government. The functions 
of this Commission were, in form, only advisory, action being 
taken by the principal 'Secretaries of State'; but the instruc- 
tions under which the Council was constituted were very wide. 
The members were directed to enquire into charters and 
administration, to consider trade, production, emigration ; and 
to acquire such information as would enlighten the colonial 
policy of the Crown. Further, it was specially authorised to 
enforce the working of the Navigation Acts. The proceedings 
of this Commission are fully recorded and reveal an astonishing 
activity in colonial questions, indicating the new place which 
these affairs occupied in English policy. Any risk that this 
departure might imply paternal control after the fashion of 
Louis XIV. in Canada, was sufficiently guarded against by 



!66o — 1740.] Massachusetts and the Restoration. 139 

the well-understood temper of the colonists themselves. One 
result of this Commission may, perhaps, be seen in the wise 
choice of Governors, who at this period (1660 — 1675) at least, 
included many men of high stamp, who united a loyal adhesion 
to the Crown with outspoken championship of the best interests 
of the colonies. Governors of this kind were rare in the half 
century which follows. After 1674 the same functions were 
exercised once more by a Committee of the Privy Council, 
which in turn was superseded by a new Board 

* ~, ■. > , * m 1 • ^ Th « ' Board 

of Trade in 1696. The exclusive prerogative of Trade 'and 
of the Crown in colonial affairs had now ceased, Colon . ial 

' questions, 1696. 

and Parliament for the first time took cognisance 
of Plantations. Industrial interests, henceforth an increasing 
factor in the Commons, claimed to be considered in all colonial 
questions ; which indeed came now to be regarded as but a 
subordinate element in the commercial policy of the State. 
And from Utrecht to the revival of the struggle with Spain for 
the right of trade in the American tropics (1739) the planta- 
tfons occupy little place in the minds of administrators at home. 



The American Colonies : the old plantations. 

The history of the New England colonies during this period 
claims attention chiefly in two aspects : the Massach 
temper of their relations, political and com- setts after the 
mercial, with the mother country, and their 
conflict with the French, upon the issue of which their 
expansion vitally depended. Massachusetts as the leading 
colony will serve as the best illustration. The independent 
spirit of the colony had been fostered by the confederation 
of 1 64 1, which was partly due to suspicion of the policy 
of Laud and his sovereign. But neither the Long Parliament 
nor the Protectorate was regarded with much confidence in 
New England, in spite of Cromwell's known attachment to 
Independency. In truth, the politicians of Boston were 
already disposed to regard England mainly as a conveni- 



140 Massachusetts and Toleration. [CH. IV. 

ence for defence against the Dutch and the French. For 
various reasons — of policy or of necessity — the colonies had 
been in the main left to themselves. Massachusetts had 
enjoyed a charter of exceptional breadth, and her leading men, 
often of great practical power, had quickly realised that for 
defence or for administration the mother-country could do 
little for so distant a possession. It is well to remember that 
Cromwell was hardly more content with this independent spirit 
of Massachusetts than were the statesmen of the Restoration. 
Notwithstanding religious repression at home, the policy of the 
new time in colonial affairs was avowedly one of toleration. 
Now Massachusetts was a conspicuous offender against the 
first principles of religious freedom. The suffrage was confined 
to professing Independents, who were in 1675 not more than 
one-sixth of the adult male population ; the Church of England, 
Presbyterians, and Baptists were subjected to disabilities of 
different degree, whilst the avowal of Quaker opinions was met 
by banishment, flogging, mutilation, or even, up to 1660, by 
hanging. Taken in connection with the outrages perpetrated 
under charges of witchcraft, one of the strangest forms of 
religious mania, which disgraced certain of the Puritan leaders 
in Salem and Boston in 1692-3, these persecutions shew 
Massachusetts to be distinctly behind other colonies in respect 
of liberty of conscience. 

Meanwhile Clarendon had three definite ends in view in 
colonial policy. The first was to secure toleration for the 
Church of England. The next was to emphasize the supremacy 
of the Crown by the enforcement of a right of appeal from 
colonial tribunals to the supreme Courts of the mother country. 
The third was to bring about a strict observance of the Acts of 
Trade in New England. There was thus little sympathy felt 
in Boston for the new regime at home. In 1664 a royal 
Commission was despatched to America to facilitate the new 
policy. Rhode Island and Connecticut were indeed brought 
into more friendly relations with the Crown ; Massachusetts 



1660 — 1740.] Massachusetts and the Navigation Acts. 141 

remained obdurate and suspicious. The Commission effected 
practically nothing in respect of the three chief aims of the 
Government. But indirectly it had weakened Massachusetts 
by detaching Connecticut and Newhaven from active share in 
the Federation ; it had, further, served to reveal in Massachusetts 
itself the existence amongst the better educated and less rigid 
sectarians of a sentiment of attachment to the mother country. 
Though represented by a party small in number and of no 
great influence in affairs, this sense of kinship might have 
developed into a political force had not the action of the 
Navigation Acts so sorely tried it. 

For the Acts of 1651 and 1660 were the cause of bitter 
resentment New England indeed produced none of the 
enumerated articles, but she imported from the West Indies 
in exchange for fish, hides and corn, cargoes of sugar and 
tobacco, which she exported to Europe often with entire 
disregard of legal restrictions. Of Massachusetts it was re- 
ported to the Home Government that no notice is taken of 
the Navigation Acts (1675). Her imports from England, 
however, were very large, and the business-like advisers of 
the Crown were careful to deal gently with Boston in the 
matter. In the absence of a Governor to represent Crown 
interests a surveyor of customs was sent to Boston in 1678 
to check if possible illicit shipment of goods. But it was 
impossible to suppress a traffic in which valuable profits were 
to be made and which public opinion in all classes of the 
community approved. Massachusetts was to the end con- 
spicuous in ignoring the Acts and in carrying on in defiance of 
French or Spanish regulations a lucrative trade with the West 
Indies or with Canada. Walpole was too wise to interfere, 
and Newcastle too indolent. But the attempt by Grenville to 
suppress it under the name of smuggling effectually alienated 
New England. Rhode Island meantime was rapidly becoming 
the centre of piratical ventures, which found their way as far as 
East Indian waters. 



142 The Position of New England. [CH. IV. 

But a more serious blow to friendly relations with Massa- 
chusetts was dealt by Charles II. in the with- 
of Massachu- drawal of the Charter itself by an arbitrary act 
setts cancelled, of the p rivy Council. In 1686 the first royal 
governor, Andros, was sent out in control of 
the whole group of colonies between Maryland and Acadia. 
It was a revolutionary age, and the revocation of popular 
rights was fairly complete. If, on the one hand, religious 
liberty was established, on the other, self-government, freedom 
of political opinion, executive and judicial rights were swept 
away. But this was a mere incident : the Revo- 
i6M? St ° red ' lution of 1688 restored prescriptive privileges 
with the marked exceptions that the Governor 
was henceforward appointed by the Crown, and the franchise 
freed from religious tests. Massachusetts was henceforward 
Massachu- on tne f° otm g 0I " an ordinary Crown colony ; its 
setts, 1700— self-government in local affairs was not again 
I74 °' endangered ; it gradually extended its control 

over the executive, especially in matters of expenditure of 
revenue and in military defence ; and its practical independence 
was threatened only by the pressure of mercantile interests 
in the English Parliament and the aggression of the French 
and their Indian allies by way of Canada. In the eighteenth 
century with the growth of New York and Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts lost its unique position amongst the American 
colonies; as wealth and culture increased, wider views in 
politics and religion found acceptance. Like every other 
colony it had its usual disputes with the Governor, revolving 
round the question of his stipend, or complaints of illicit 
trading, or the arming of the frontier posts. At certain 
critical periods the Assembly of New York or Pennsylvania 
made the position of the Governor almost impossible. But 
Massachusetts, as became its trained political instincts, was 
in an emergency the first to rise to the occasion : bickerings 
gave way to the practical work of attack or defence; and 



i66o— 1740.] Virginia and the Restoration. 143 

in joint action Massachusetts was the one colony to be relied 
upon. Hard, sturdy, often illiberal, with little feeling for 
history or for racial kinship, Boston was after all actuated 
by keen political common-sense, and was rarely factious. 
Disliked, not wholly understood, by Englishmen, it was not 
doubted that the New Englander was the finest type of 
colonist which the mother land had sent forth. 

It was natural that between Boston and the Stuart court 
there should be neither mutual confidence nor „. . . 

Virginia and 

identity of interests. But Charles II. had good the Restora- 
reason to respect the privileges of Virginia. The tIon * 
" Old Dominion " had shewn itself thoroughly royalist in the 
Civil War; it had yielded to the Commonwealth (1652) only 
under force; it had welcomed the Restoration with effusion. 
Some thousands of Cavalier refugees had settled on her lands, 
and Virginia was rapidly becoming the chief contributor, 
through the Customs, to the royal exchequer. Yet Virginia 
suffered worse things at the hands of the Crown even than 
New England. 

A striking figure in colonial history, Governor Berkeley, 
represented the Crown in the colony between 1660 and 1 1677. 
He belongs to the class of Governors — becoming steadily rarer 
through the next century — who identified themselves in senti- 
ment and interests with their provinces. Roystering and 
ignorant though he was, Berkeley was no place-hunter or 
bankrupt courtier anxious to make money and be gone. He 
was a shrewd administrator, though apt to ignore instructions 
from home and popular feeling on the spot. He kept his 
House of Burgesses sitting for sixteen years without re-election. 
An Indian rising caught him unprepared. Manors were burnt 
and settlers killed. Discontent amongst the colonists became 
open revolt (1676). The Governor repressed the rising with 
extreme severity: he was recalled in disgrace in 1677. The 
colony quickly recovered and the Indians once more resumed 
their friendly attitude. 



144 Virginia and James II [ch. IV. 

Meanwhile a transaction had been effected at home which 
throws a vivid light on colonial policy as under- 

andthe stood by Charles II. In 1672 he conferred, of 

o ony. ^. g rova j b oun ty j upon Lords Arlington and 

Culpepper the entire freehold of Virginia. By this truly 
astonishing deed of gift the king deprived the colonists of all 
legal title to their lands and homesteads, ignored the patient 
toil of 60 years of settlement, and placed 50,000 of his subjects 
at the mercy of two adventurers. It is true that the new land- 
lords of the colony commuted — as the best terms they could 
get — their rights for tobacco duty and pensions. But in 1682, 
to the disgust of the colony, Culpepper came out as Governor, 
with instructions, in effect, to make self-government in Virginia 
a nullity. It must be remembered that though Virginia had a 
legislative Assembly it was without control over the executive 
except through the right of refusing supplies. A Governor bent 
upon a policy of repression had many opportunities of carrying 
it into effect. He need not call an Assembly for a series of 
years ; he could collect and spend the revenue last voted ; 
appoint judges, land officials, local authorities. There was no 
town life with its organised opinion ; there were no Church 
communities with their training for political action. 

The true example of royal " oppressor" belongs, however, 
n to the following reign. In 1684 James II. 

and Lord despatched a man of his own temper to succeed 

Culpepper. Lord Howard of Effingham was 
not less rapacious and arbitrary than his predecessor, whilst 
he was lacking in all art to conceal his purpose. He made no 
pretence of public interest or of respect for constitutional 
right. The landowning class was thoroughly roused. 
Howard was a Catholic ; still worse, in their eyes, he was 
personally corrupt, overbearing and contemptuous. To the 
aristocrats of Virginia, as to the country gentlemen of England, 
Protestantism and honest government were dearer than the 
Stuarts and their creatures. 



1660 — 1740.] Prosperity of Virginia. 145 

Not until the Revolution settlement and the appointment 
of Nicholson, a colonial administrator of great Virginia 
practical ability, did Virginia once more settle 1688— i 74 o. 
down into that political quietude which generally marked her 
history. But the conflict through which the colony had just 
passed left an ineffaceable impression. What had happened 
under Charles and James might always happen again. 
Political interference, however, on the part of the mother 
country now ceased entirely. The Governor came gradually 
to be at the mercy of the Assembly, upon which he was 
dependent for the cost of government and for his own stipend. 
Under the circumstances good men were hard to find who 
would face the worry of the position. In truth, after 1 700, in 
all matters outside the sphere of trade, Virginia, like her 
neighbours, was left in practical independence. 

Meantime the colony was extremely prosperous. By the 
end of the 17th century she had a population of 100,000, of 
whom only 7000 were negroes, and perhaps 1000 more of other 
nationality than British. Her Indian troubles were forgotten. 
For it must be noted that the Assembly had set an admirable 
example of honest and humane treatment of the native races. 
Laws were not only passed, but were strictly enforced, against 
kidnapping and enslavement of Indians, against their illegal 
ejection from their lands, and against unlawful imprisonment. 
Settlers of high position were severely punished for breaches of 
these laws. In 1655 steps had been taken towards the education 
and civilisation of the Indian communities, and, later on, wide 
territories were permanently allotted to them. Virginia reaped 
the reward of this policy in a singular degree of security, which 
enabled settlers to extend their plantations to the very foot of 
the Alleghanies. We must not however forget that Virginia 
rejoiced in the absence of all foreign rivals on her frontiers ; 
the Indian, therefore, at this period escaped the dangers which 
beset him farther north as the tool of French intrigue. 

The growth of negro slavery became more rapid after 1700, 

W. E. IO 



146 The Carolina Company. [CH. IV. 

cheapening the production of tobacco, which continued to be 
the one crop of the colony. As early as 1673 this product 
paid ;£i 50,000 a year in customs duties in England. Neither 
education nor religion filled the place that they occupied in 
New England. The College of William and Mary was set up 
in 1693 in the new capital of Williamsburg: but it was little 
more than a school, and, as an intellectual influence on the 
colony, it was of small account. As hitherto, the manor 
houses were still the centres of social life, of political discussion, 
and of education, for the Virginian planters. 



The American Colonies : added by Settlement or by 
Conquest. 

The region lying to the south of Virginia included the 
site of Raleigh's abandoned colony. It was im- 
Proprietary portant that this area should not fall to Spanish 
colony of occupation, and as far back as 1629 it had been 

granted under patent by Charles I and called 
Carolana. No settlement was then effected; but during the 
period of religious troubles which ensued small parties of 
harassed dissenters from Virginia, and of Quakers and Baptists 
from Massachusetts, established themselves about 1654 on the 
Albemarle river and Cape Fear. In 1663 Charles II granted 
the entire region between Virginia and Florida, stretching back 
to the Pacific, to a small body of Proprietors, amongst whom 
were Clarendon, Albemarle and Ashley, afterwards Earl of 
Shaftesbury. 

The interest of Carolina lies in its economic developement 

The rather than in its political history, which may be at 

Northern once briefly set out. The northern settlements 

Plantation. alQng the Albemarle r i ver became the North 

Carolina of a later day, and those to the south of Cape Fear 



1660 — 1740.] North Carolina. 147 

(Cape Fair on our maps) were the nucleus of South Carolina. 
The former colony was for a century struggling, thinly peopled, 
backward, practically a failure. Its chief town, Edenton, had 
at the end of half a century only fifty miserable houses. 

The settlers, drawn in but small part from England, included 
much doubtful material from other colonies, the p opu i at i 0n 
best element being supplied by the exiled »nd Govern- 
Quakers from New England. The Proprietors 
were represented by a deputy of the Governor of the province, 
who resided at Charlestown in South Carolina. An Assembly 
of twelve members had a voice in the appointment of one half 
of an Executive Council ; and, as in other proprietary colonies, 
was generally at issue with the owners and their nominee. 
The Proprietors, finding the Plantation profitless and the 
settlers hard to manage, neglected North Carolina. An Indian 
war (1711) sorely tried the stability of the colony; the more 
energetic inhabitants abandoned it for more thriving ventures. 
The feeble control of the Proprietors was terminated by Crown 
purchase in 1729 to the common advantage. North Carolina 
represents the proprietary system at its lowest level. 

It must be said that the colony lay under marked dis 
advantages. Separated by swampy forests from 
Virginia and from Charlestown alike, lacking i st ics*™ C '* 
good harbours, destitute of sturdy pioneers able ~ OTt y 
to resist the enervating climate, without capital, 
or influence at home, with bad repute for enterprise or cohesion, 
the Albemarle settlements failed to attract immigration. Of 
the few surplus products furs only had export value. Negro 
slavery degraded free labour; and there were no large plan- 
tations to develope organising capacity. If the Indians were 
as a rule friendly, that again was due to the lack of enterprise 
which left the interior wholly unexplored. 

In the plantation further south, afterwards South Carolina, 
the Proprietors pursued a different policy. Instead of being 
content with hap-hazard settlement from other colonies, they 



148 South Carolina. [CH. IV. 

despatched an expedition of discovery (1666), and on its 
The report formally invited emigrants from the mother 

Southern country and from Ireland to join others from 
1666. The' Barbados in an organised colony on the Ashley 
Settlers. river. The Governor was a Nonconformist from 
Bermuda; and the religious policy one of general toleration. 
The purpose of the settlement was to form a true colony, with 
agricultural and commercial pursuits. Liberal grants of land 
were made to settlers, and indentured servants were assured 
of a hundred acres at the end of four years' service with loans 
of tools and other supplies. Restraint was placed on absentee 
ownerships, on intercourse with Indians, and, though not very 
successfully, on attempts at enslaving them. To the Proprietors 
the enterprise was first of all a mercantile venture ; but there 
is a generous breadth of political wisdom in their instructions ; 
and for the first five-and-twenty years they were fortunate in 
their choice of Governors. The chief town was Charlestown, 
later on the dignified social capital of the South. The colonists 
were reinforced by Huguenots, sent out at the instance of 
Charles himself, who introduced wine and silk culture, and by 
traders from New York. 

Politically the Carolinas derive a certain interest from 

Locke's *k e f amous Constitution elaborated by John 

Constitution, Locke in 1669 and the following years. It 

is, however, a matter mainly of speculative 

importance, for its actual application was deferred until the 

colonies should be sufficiently developed, and when the period 

arrived the settlers had already worked out their provisional 

institutions to their own satisfaction. Some trouble, however, 

was caused by determined attempts of the Proprietors to impose 

certain parts of the aristocratic ideal of Locke upon a working 

administration of the usual colonial type. It was entirely in 

accord with the English temper that government should be 

regarded by the colonists as a piece of business machinery, and 

not as a matter of theoretic completeness and symmetry. Like 



1660 — 1740.] Its Progress, political and economic. 149 

Gorges in the case of Maine, Locke did not realise that he 
was dealing with a handful of settlers whose chief concern was 
with subsistence and defence, and whose only views on consti- 
tutions were that, being on the spot, they themselves knew far 
better what was suited to their requirements than philosophers 
and kings three thousand miles away. So far as it attracted 
attention at all in the colony, the Constitution was thoroughly 
distrusted, and such attempts as were made at applying it were 
finally abandoned before the end of the century. 

The actual government of South Carolina consisted of a 
Governor, appointed by the Proprietors, an The actual 
Executive Council of ten, half of them elected Government, 
by the freemen, and a representative Assembly of twenty. 
Judiciary and executive were in the hands of the Council, who 
formed a kind of Upper House. There is nothing which can 
be called oppressive in such a constitution, and the proposals 
of the Proprietors for the general conduct of the colony are 
marked by practical wisdom. The New England Aims of the 
type is preferred to the Virginian : stress is Founder- 
therefore laid upon urban centres for defence, organisation and 
trade. Variety of products is to be studied and intercolonial 
trade encouraged. Although trade is the inspiring motive, a 
true colony, and not a series of mercantile posts after the Dutch 
fashion, is contemplated. Great care is taken in securing 
settlers with knowledge of special industries. At the outset 
grants of land were confined to the area within Progress 
60 miles from Charlestown. Population grew of the 
slowly. By 1 700 there were hardly 1200 freemen, ° ny ' 
with perhaps 8000 negro slaves ; the latter tending, as always, 
to restrict the immigration of white labourers and artisans. By 
the Peace of Utrecht the colony had barely 12,000 inhabitants 
in all. 

In 1680 a small Scottish settlement, which formed the 
extreme southern outpost of the plantation, was destroyed by a 
Spanish force from St Augustine in Florida; the charge, probably 



150 Fall of the Proprietary Government. [CH. IV. 

true, was that of the connivance of Charlestown in the piracy then 
rife in Spanish waters. Indian wars were exceptionally frequent, 
and now and then disastrous. The natives were provoked by 
slave-hunting raids of the settlers. For Carolina planters of the 
early period found that Indians made tolerable slaves, and not 
only worked them in gangs along with negroes, but exported them 
to Nevis and St Kitts. The Indian war of 1 7 1 6, due to the steady 
encroachment of the settlers upon territory hitherto unexplored, 
seriously endangered the entire colony. Queen Anne's war had 
renewed the trouble with Florida. In 1706 Charlestown was 
besieged and defended itself with gallantry and success ; the 
peace of 17 14 encouraged westerly expansion and renewed im- 
migration. 

Politics at Charlestown turned as elsewhere in America on 

The Fail tne relations of Governor and settlers. After 

of the 1 700 these became steadily more acute. In 17 19 

Proprietary . . . , _, _. 

Government, a crisis was reached. I he conflict arose upon 
I 7 I 9- the powers of the Colonial Assembly to extend 

the sphere of self-government by creating local elective bodies, 
a step rendered necessary by the expansion of the occupied 
area. An Act to that effect was vetoed by the Proprietors 
through the Governor. The Assembly thereupon assumed 
entire control of the administration, ignored the Governor, and 
without violence or vague assertion of abstract rights, demanded 
the position of a colony in direct relation to the Crown. The 
Colony was singularly united; Ministers and Proprietors 
at home acquiesced, and with the least possible disturbance of 
existing forms the political rights of the Company ceased. The 
Government sent their most capable colonial official to super- 
intend the new order of affairs, and in 1729 the proprietary 
rights in the soil were definitely surrendered. 

No page in the history of the Carolina Company is so 

instructive in relation to colonial development as that which 

; recounts its dissolution. The Proprietors had for thirty years 

gradually abandoned the task of controlling their distant com- 



1660 — 1740.] Characteristics of S. Carolina. 151 

munity, they had allowed local responsibility to grow up, and 
the time inevitably came when the colony consciously outgrew 
its tutelage. The events of 17 19 were in no sense a revolution, 
but only a recognition of actual facts. Both in aim and in 
manner the conduct of the Assembly was essentially practical 
and essentially English. 

South Carolina, though of the same general type as Virginia, 
differed from it in some important respects. 
Virginia was from the first, and remained, essen- istic^of"" 
tially English in population. It continued to South 

, . , r , Carolina. 

receive, in spite of the growth of negro slavery, a 
large influx of white labour, out of which grew a middle class. 
Further, Virginia had one staple product ; its plantations were 
large, isolated, and self-dependent. Carolina on the other 
hand had a mixed population. Its leading class was mainly of 
West Indian origin, planters familiar with the slave system in 
its full working. Indian slavery was not rare, white field-labour, 
bond or free, was not available owing to the climate ; such of 
it as there was shared the discredit of the enslaved race. In 
Carolina the planter was less wealthy and had less scope for 
ability than in Virginia; rice was not so profitable nor so widely 
grown as tobacco. The slave-holder had his town mansion in 
Charlestown, and often cultivated his estate by overseers, not 
unlike the lords of the soil in southern Italy. For a time the 
Indian trouble checked the growth of settlement, and the 
Spaniard had to be reckoned with in case of war in Europe. 
The population was less scattered than in Virginia; hence there 
was a fuller social life, more luxury, less energy. 

The Slave-system was the key-stone of the economic edifice : 
it reached its highest development in the rice- Th 
fields and'cotton-plantations of the great southern siave- 
colony. There were but two classes: the planter s y stem - 
and the slave. By the middle of the eighteenth century South 
Carolina had become the very type of the aristocratic slave- 
holding community. 



152 The Dutch at New Amsterdam. [CH. iv. 

The first community of Europeans to be merged by con- 
quest into the empire of England was the Dutch 
1665: a colony colony on the Hudson. Jamaica, indeed, had 
won by con- b een taken in war ten years before, but its 
Spanish sovereigns had left the island practically 
undeveloped. Its conquest, therefore, was hardly more than 
the acquisition of so much virgin territory by force of arms 
instead of by settlement. It did not imply the absorption of 
an organised colony of Europeans. But the New Netherlands 
in North America belong to the group of which Canada and 
Cape Colony are other examples — communities of European 
stock added to the realm of England by the fortune of war. 
The Dutch settlers were, as we have seen (p. 108), at a very 
early period forced back by the men of Con- 

The Dutch . , i ■ r i TT ■, i -, 

colony of New necticut to the basin of the Hudson ; whilst on 
1624- *66s ndS = ^ e soutn_west their immediate neighbours were 
certain scattered communities of Swedes, who 
began to settle along the Delaware in 1638 under charter 
from Gustavus Adolphus. At the Restoration, however, these 
had been forcibly incorporated into the Dutch colony (1655), 
which was now separated from the nearest English territory, 
Maryland, by the unoccupied area afterwards Pennsylvania. 
The Dutch thus formed a barrier between the New England 
and the southern colonies, whilst in the Hudson they possessed 
the direct line of communication between New France and the 
Atlantic seaboard. Canadian governors early recognised the 
import of the Dutch colony to the interests of French ex- 
pansion : they urged its purchase as a means at once of 
dividing the English and subjugating the fiercest of their 
Indian enemies the Iroquois, whose homes lay in the dense 
forest region between Lake Champlain and Lake Erie. 

The Dutch settlers in North America were, like their 

brethren in South Africa, sturdy rather than 
teriBtics. &T&C " energetic. The more enterprising of their race 

turned to sea-trading, and to the development of 



1660 — 1740.] Conquest by England. 1 53 

rich tropical dependencies by forced labour, rather than to 
plantation with its slow and meagre returns. As in the case of 
other European states Dutch expansion proceeded by the 
method of monopoly. Their West India Company (1624) 
granted tracts of land along the Hudson to proprietors of a 
feudal type, lords of the soil who enjoyed almost sovereign 
rights over their cultivating tenants. The absence of that 
stimulus which, apparently, nothing but the ownership of the 
land can give to settlers in a new country, hindered the growth 
of agriculture. What energy there was was directed to the fur 
trade, to irregular traffic with Spain, to privateering, or the 
carrying trade between Europe and Virginia. The Governors 
of the Company were generally arbitrary, jealous of popular 
opinion, and ignorant of the real needs of colonisation. 

The hostility of England and Holland in Europe in 1652 
at once provoked its counterpart between the 
colonists of the two countries. Peace, however, „f the colony, 
was concluded just in time to save New Amster- £ rea , ty °* 

1 Breda 1667. 

dam from Cromwell's fleet. But the fate of the 
colony was inevitable. For it was (a) a menace to New England, 
(0) a standing obstacle to the enforcement of the Navigation 
Laws, (c) the certain prize of French ambition in the near 
future. When Charles II renewed the war with Holland in 
1663 the entire colony, from the Delaware to the border of 
Newhaven, fell without resistance before a small body of 
colonial troops. Swedes, French refugees, German Protestants, 
and the majority of the mixed population welcomed the con- 
quest, and to the dismay of Canada the English became, by the 
Treaty of Breda (1667), the lords of the entire coast-line from 
Florida to the Bay of Fundy. Geographically, at least, the 
unity of the English in North America was secured. 

The Dutch territories were, in accordance with the colonial 
policy of the day, handed over as a proprietary The E Hsh 
province to James, Duke of York. Thus the administra- 
Delaware settlements formed the province of 



154 Tlie Colony of New York. [ch. iv. 

New Jersey, and New Amsterdam became New York. It is 
important to notice that no interference' with landed rights or 
religious privileges took place; but gradually local units of 
administration, the township and the county, superseded 
manorial, jurisdiction of the Dutch families. Self-government, 
as worked out in New England and Virginia, was thus in local 
affairs grafted upon the existing institutions. A colonial legisla- 
ture was, however, not yet conceded, supreme power resting with 
the Governor and his Executive Council. On the whole, in the 
transitional state of affairs, with a population much divided in 
interests and in language, wholly unused to responsible control 
of affairs, and separated by wide areas, as well as by racial 
antipathies, the form of government thus introduced was pro- 
bably the best available. With the influx of settlers from New 
England a demand for self-government of the usual colonial 
type arose and was acceded to in 1683. The "Charter of 
Liberties " indicates a liberal conception of proprietary govern- 
ment. The Duke retained the freehold of all unallotted lands, 
the Customs dues, and the right of veto upon legislation, but 
subject to these reservations, the popular Assembly acquired 
the usual privileges of taxation and legislation as understood 
in an English colony. A cardinal fact lies in the equality 
of all settlers, irrespective of nationality. The English free- 
man or freeholder shared the franchise with German, Swede, 
or Dutchman : a characteristic of English expansion which 
marks it off in spirit and in method from that of Holland or 
Spain. 

But New York experienced, along with the other colonies 
and the mother country herself, the baneful consequences of 
James IPs reign. The new charter was within two years re- 
voked. A period of irregular and arbitrary rule followed. 
But political oppression once shaken off at home, the liberties 
of the colonies were quickly restored. Under William III 
Parliament re-established the main provisions of the revoked 
charter. Henceforward New York, now a Crown colony, 



1660 — 1740.] Its political and economic progress. 155 

suffered rather from the neglect than from the undue interfer- 
ence of the home Government. 

The industries, like the population, of the Dutch colonies of 
New York and New Jersey, were more varied 
than in the English plantations. Cattle-raising, tr i a i growth of 
wheat-growing, fur-hunting subsisted side by side *** ™_ Yorkt 
with ship-building, coasting trade, and some 
small manufacture. The Dutch land-owning class was still 
socially predominant ; in a few instances their manorial estates 
remained intact well into the 19th century. The English, 
chiefly in New York and the coast districts, were engaged 
in trade. Irregular if not piratical ventures were openly 
winked at. New York, from its importance in foreign com- 
merce, took before the close of this period a cosmopolitan 
character and rivalled Boston and Charleston as a provincial 
capital. 

The politics of the colony, after the Restoration of 1688, 
turned mainly on the Navigation Acts, the rela- It8 olitics . 
tions with Canada and the Indian trade, and the French 
the position of the Governor. On the first strugee * 
question enough has already been said (p. 134). As regards 
the second, public opinion was sharply divided. By the end 
of the 17th century Puritans from New England were already 
dominant in New York and in the sea- coast townships. By 
sentiment and interests they differed from the stolid ultra- 
conservative Dutch of the old colony. The latter, who were 
more numerous on the Upper Hudson, where on the edge of 
the wilderness stood their quaint town of Albany, refused to 
take active interest in the struggle with the French, which was 
a matter of life and death for Massachusetts. Not only were 
they strong enough in the Assembly to hinder adequate 
measures of frontier defence, but, in foolish disregard of their 
own safety, they neglected to secure the good-will of the 
Indians of the " Five Nations," whose power formed a natural 
bar to French invasion. Thus a Governor anxious to cooperate 



156 A Colonial Governor. [ch. IV. 

with New England for joint protection was sure to be thwarted 
by the self-regarding instincts of the Dutch. 

The colony of New York indeed illustrates clearly the 
_. . . difficulties which beset the colonial government 

The position . ° 

of the of the time. The Governor had a dual position. 

He was in the first place the agent of the Crown 
and the guardian of its rights; in the next place he was the 
chief of the executive of the colony, and as such dependent 
for means to carry on the administration upon an Assembly 
jealous of the royal power in all its forms. It was easy then to 
utilise the needs of the Governor — including his own natural 
requirement of salary — to secure the concession of privileges 
which he had no power to grant. Nor had a royal Governor, 
during the first half of the 18th century, the consciousness 
Lack of °^ stron § support at home. Allowing for the 
support difficulties arising from slow and uncertain com- 

from home. mu nications Imperial authority suffered from 
the fact that no responsible statesman of position had 
either interest in, or a first-hand acquaintance with, colonial 
affairs. It is not to be wondered at that, under such thankless 
conditions, men of high character and capacity are seldom met 
with amongst colonial Governors during the Walpole era. Yet 
it was undoubtedly true that, compared with any other colonial 
administration of the day, that of England was conspicuous for 
its liberality, its elasticity, and its integrity. That the working 
compromise between colonial liberties and Imperial responsi- 
bility should not be promptly reached, or consistently carried 
out on either side, is hardly a matter for surprise. 

In 168 1 a charter was granted to William Penn, the 
Quaker, of 47,000 square miles of territory lying 
PeD i n 68i! Vania ' between Maryland and the colonies lately ac- 
quired from the Dutch. The sea front was 
limited to the estuary of the Delaware, but westwards and 
northwards the new plantation stretched across the Alleghanies 
to the head-waters of the Ohio and the shore of Lake Erie. 



1660 — 1740.] Pennsylvania. 157 

The object of the King was simple. He owed Penn, as heir of 
Admiral Penn, ,£16,000, which it was more convenient to pay 
in any way rather than in cash. Penn had for some years 
been interested in America on behalf of his fellow Quakers, 
who acquired for purposes of settlement part of the late Dutch 
possession known as the Jerseys. The Quaker migration to 
this region, dating from 1670, was of a similar origin and type 
to that of Plymouth and Massachusetts half-a-century before ; 
it was religious and political in motive rather 
than commercial. Penn now seized the oppor- of^ts founda- 
tunity of exhibiting in the new colony of Penn- tion : political 
sylvania, on a larger scale, the political and ideal, 
social aims which mark his career. He framed 
a " holy experiment " in government, in which freedom of 
faith and full civic equality and responsibility should be the 
prime articles. It was the democratic ideal as understood by 
Sydney and his friends. The new community should respect 
the rights of the natives, should abstain from war, and should 
welcome as settlers all who acknowledged a Divine order of the 
universe. At the head of the colony stood the 
Proprietor, and so long as he remained in perfect 
sympathy with the spirit of the. constitution difficulty might be 
evaded. The Council and Assembly were alike elected by the 
people. The former, presided over by the Governor, i.e. the 
Proprietor or his nominee, was the executive body : it ad- 
ministered the revenue, controlled judges and police, decreed 
new townships and provided education. The Assembly, 
elected by ballot, voted taxation and decided upon bills sub- 
mitted by the executive. The first Assembly, which met in 
1684, displayed a thoroughly practical temper. It proceeded 
to sanction Penn's most cherished conditions : decreeing fair 
treatment of Indians, humane discipline of prisons, manual 
education for every child, and the Christian qualification for 
office. Elective boards were provided for local areas. 

It was characteristic of Penn's wisdom that he did not 



158 Pennsylvania: settlers and productions. [CH. IV. 

attempt to devise beforehand an elaborate constitution. The 
actual working out of his principles was left, both as regards 
large questions and minor details, to be determined by circum- 
stances ; and he never used his power as Proprietor to prevent 
serious alterations in his original scheme. The Assembly, due 
to the mixture of its elements, soon developed antagonism to 
the Proprietor, and but for Penn's profound faith in freedom, 
justice, and the saving virtue of responsibility, the proprietary 
system would, even in his lifetime, have come to an end. 

The population of the colony was formed, in the first place, 
of the scattered Dutch and Swedish settlers 
op a on. w ^ o ^ a( j ^ or k a if a cen t urv established them- 
selves, without political organisation, in scattered farmsteads 
along the valleys of the Delaware and Susquehanna. Penn 
early organised a large immigration of Quakers, who were 
followed by Rhenish and French Protestants. These were 
gradually joined by others from New York and New England, 
attracted by liberty of opinion and by the open chances of a 
virgin territory. The colonists suffered neither from rigours of 
climate nor from attacks of Indians. The French were an 
unrealised peril. The labour of clearing the forest was the 
first, and long the chief, task of the pioneers, but the soil 
proved fertile, and wheat and maize, pasture, 
fruit and vegetables grew abundantly. Iron, 
coal, limestone, and useful timber were plentiful enough to 
stimulate manufacture and ship-building. Small freeholds by 
degrees supplanted the large estates of the first Quaker 
owners; German and Swedish farmers, traders and woodsmen 
penetrated to the interior with perfect security, due, as in 
Virginia, to the fair native policy of Penn. An export trade 
in " unenumerated " articles — fur, grain, hides, and timber — 
sprang up. The middle class, the strong element of the popu- 
lation, rapidly thrived, and Philadelphia became second only 
to Boston in economic and social importance. Emigration 
was well organised at home ; the mixture of its elements was 



1660 — 1740.] Progress of the Colony. 159 

characteristic of the colony. Education was elaborately cared 
for. Negro slavery was rare and was humane. 
The Quakers were the first Abolitionists, and istics. 
their sentiment was shared by the German 
colonists. Penn was deeply convinced of the religious duty of 
the settler towards the Indian and the negro ; and this, rather 
than the force of economic motives, kept Pennsylvania free 
from the slave system. Indentured service was also in- 
significant and free labour was the rule as in New England. 
The colony had its manor-houses and country squires, though 
of Quaker origin : as compared with Virginia its standard of 
life was thrifty and serious, whilst it was more tolerant in 
religion and manners, and had more variety of interests, than 
the Puritan society of Massachusetts or Connecticut. 

The peace principles of the Quakers, who dominated the 
Assembly down to the Seven Years' War, prevented Pennsyl- 
vania from co-operating with vigour against the common 
enemy of the English — the Frenchman and his Indian tools. 
The native tribes of the Alleghanies, the Ohio and the shores 
of Erie were up to 1752 invariably friendly to the colony, and 
the terrible experiences of 1 755—1 759 were due to causes 
whose root lay in the inevitable struggle of the English and 
French races for the control of the New World. 

By the end of the century there were 20,000 settlers in the 
colony, three-fourths of whom were of British Pro 
origin. The influence of its political and re- and influence 
ligious freedom, the first real success of the kind ° ony ' 

in colonial history, reacted on politics at home. We cannot 
overlook the important effect of an object lesson in political 
responsibility and in the widest religious toleration upon the 
growth of a similar spirit in the mother country. The Naviga- 
tion Acts were hardly a serious grievance in Pennsylvania. 
English shipping, especially after Utrecht, was in sufficient 
supply for the needs of the export trade, and, as this included 
none of the "enumerated" products, Philadelphia traded 



160 Georgia. [CH. IV. 

without hindrance to any European port. On the other hand 
there was much " smuggling," or unauthorised commerce, with 
Spanish colonies, and this was not interfered with from home. 
Still we may trace the beginnings of the spirit which ended in 
the Declaration of 1776. There was no "disloyalty." But the 
large infusion of foreign population, with its indifference to 
England, the memories of Quaker persecutions, the lack of 
realised peril from the French, combined with the steady 
prosperity and self-sufficiency, economic and political, of the 
colony, tended to diminish the sense of dependence upon the 
mother country. 

The colony of Georgia, the latest of the British plantations 
. of North America, belongs in its origin to the type 

173a : its ' of Pennsylvania rather than that of Carolina, out 

origin. o j. wnose territory it was formed. The motive 

of its founder, General Oglethorpe, was philanthropy, and not 
profit. As a social experiment it received — alone amongst the 
colonies — a direct grant of public money, the sum of ,£ 10,000 
being voted by Parliament towards its promotion. By its 
charter (1732) a region south of the river Savannah, and 
stretching westwards to the Pacific, was erected into the colony 
The first 0I " Georgia. The first settlers were sought 

settlers. amongst insolvent debtors discharged from prison. 
Criminals were refused. Foreign emigrants, Moravians, and 
other German Protestants arrived in the second year of the 
colony (1733), introducing the culture of the vine and the silk- 
worm. Slavery was expressly prohibited, as was, in the interest 
of Indian sobriety, all importation of spirits. 

The original Trustees of the Colony ceded their privileges 
to the Crown in 1752, when a constitution of 

sprogres ^ usual kind was set up. The precise aims 
of the founders had already been abandoned. Liquor traffic 
crept in ; slavery, introduced in a restricted form for terms of 
years, had developed into a recognised system. Whitefield, 
the Methodist preacher, who visited Georgia in 1738, defended 



i66o — 1740.] Hudson s Bay Company. 161 

it on religious grounds. The Indians were generally friendly, 
and were found on the side of the English in their attacks against 
Florida in 1740-2. For the "encroachment" of Georgia upon 
Spanish territory (as the valley of the Savannah was claimed to 
be) was a contributory cause of the war with Spain which, 
beginning in 1739, dragged on until 1748. 



RUPERTSLAND. 

We pass now to the great northern regions, a mere fringe 
of which was the field of French enterprise. 

In 1670 what we may fairly describe as the Colonial Group 
at court secured an imposing grant of territory, The 
far to the north of existing European settlements Hudson's 
in America, under the title of Prince Rupert's company, 
Land, from the name of its chief promoter. The l67 °° 
charter of the Company of Hudson's Bay, reciting the hope 
of discovery of a passage to the South Sea, confers exclusive 
rights of trade, settlement and government within the enormous, 
though then undefined, area which is drained by rivers falling 
into the Bay. At this date the territory was wholly unex- 
plored; it was cut off from Canada by dense forest and a 
network of unnavigable waters. There were, later on, as was 
to be expected, disputes not only as to boundaries but as to 
the right of the English to be there at all. But, in the absence 
of settlers, these were of little practical moment. The first 
"voyage" was sent out in 1671; store-houses were built in 
James' Bay and pioneers sent up the country a trading 
"to cultivate an understanding with the natives." Company, 
With much difficulty they opened up a trade in furs, which 
were brought into the forts where factors were maintained 
throughout the year in charge of English goods suitable for 

w. e. it 



1 62 The French and English in N. America. [CH. iv. 

barter. This was the origin of the great English fur-trade 
for which London has ever since remained the central market 
of the world. 

The royal charter was confirmed by Parliament in the 
usual way at the Revolution (1690); but grave danger arose 
to the Company, during Queen Anne's war, from French attacks. 
The Treaty of Utrecht, however, acknowledged the English 
title to the Hudson Bay territory; and the attempts of out- 
with exclusive siders to secure liberty of trade were success- 
rights, fully resisted. It is interesting to notice that 
the exclusive rights of the Company were defended on the 
ground of the danger to the natives caused by the impor- 
tation of spirits by irregular adventurers. The loss to the 
nation from possible diversion of the trade to Canadian routes, 
the reckless slaughter of fur-bearing animals, and the risks 
arising from intrigue amongst Indian tribes were also urged. 
The case of Hudson's Bay shews that in an unknown and 
remote region a regulated monopoly may be a wise expedient 
in the interests of savage races even though it may retard 
the general exploitation of the resources of the country. The 
Company had financially no great success ; soil and climate 
forbad settlement, and in the middle of the 18th century the 
operations of the Proprietors were still confined to the un- 
important trade, carried on from Forts York, Albany or 
Churchill, with the natives of the north-west. 



The French and the English in North America. 

The Treaty of St Germain (1632) had formally recognised 
the French as possessors of the basin of the St Lawrence, and 
of the vaguely defined district of Acadia, which covered 
practically the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick of our maps. 



i66o — 1740.] The development of New France. 163 

The settlements of the French down to 1660 were few and 
weak, and were too remote to endanger the security of New 
England. 

The growth of New France dates from the administration 
of Colbert, the minister of the young King, Louis Colbert 
XIV. That great statesman typified at once and Fr * a * h 

. . . ... expansion. 

the commercial spirit and the political concep- 
tions of his country : and the characteristic features of French 
colonisation and of trade policy have retained ever since the 
marks of his genius. The history of the French monarchy and 
the temper of the French people have always rendered possible 
a conception of the functions of government in national life 
intolerable to men of English race. To Louis XIV and his 
ministers, and not less to his people, the King's government 
was the natural source of all activity : the individual had but to 
follow. Hence a system of authority, working through officials 
or state monopolies, was invoked to initiate and direct the 
expansion of France across the seas. America and the Indies 
were the fields chosen by Colbert for his great experiments. 

The Company of the West (1664) had a sufficiently am- 
bitious aim. Its area in North America stretched Canada or 
from Hudson's Bay to Florida. It was invested New France, 
with sovereign and territorial rights, monopoly of trade and 
of settlement. The existence of English colonies in New 
England and in Virginia was ignored. Political, military and 
financial administrators were despatched; with them officers, 
Jesuit Fathers, young nobles and a handful of traders and 
settlers. The systematic development of Canada was boldly 
taken in hand. The French in Canada concern us here in 
three aspects : as (a) explorers, as (0) colonisers, and as (c) 
competitors with the English settlers for the control of 
America. 

Montreal, when the officers of Colbert's new company 
reached it in 1665, was the upper station of the French in 
Canada. Jesuit missions had already been planted on Lake 



164 Exploration of the Great West. [CH. IV. 

Ontario ; and were feeling their way to Lake Superior. Fur- 
hunters penetrated to still more distant points, and both to 
the north and south of the St Lawrence Indian tribes had 
become familiar with the wares, and the vices, of the white 
trader. 

Now began the era of systematic exploration. In 1668 
the great travellers La Salle and the Jesuit 
tionofthe 01 *" Marquette pushed towards the west. Reports 
West, from the Iroquois of a great stream flowing away 

from the St Lawrence fired their imaginations 
with the hope of reaching the "South Sea" and a short 
route to China. La Salle began by exploring Lake Erie; 
he passed on to Huron and Superior. The upper tributaries 
of the Ohio were reached in 1671. In the same year the 
sovereignty of Louis XIV was formally proclaimed over the 
entire region of the Lakes and of the countries adjacent 
thereto : " both those which have been discovered and those 
which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and 
breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the north 
and west, and on the other by the South Sea," and forbidding 
intrusion on the part of subjects of any other state whatsoever. 

The Mississippi was first reached by Marquette. In 1673, 

The Mis- travelling by way of Lake Michigan, he launched 
•issippi, 1673. his canoe upon the Wisconsin, reached the main 
stream, passed the junction of the Missouri, and only at the 
mouth of the Arkansas turned once more northwards. The 
discovery was hailed with enthusiasm at Quebec. Frontenac, 
the greatest of French Canadian statesmen, secured by forts 
both Ontario and Michigan, and by his orders La Salle com- 
pleted the exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth in the 
Gulf of Mexico in 1682. The lower Mississippi was however 
left unoccupied until, at the close of King William's war 
(1697), to forestall the grant of an English charter, DTber- 
Louisiana, ^We led a small expedition to the delta, built a 

l6 97- fort, and started the famous colony of Louisiana 



1660 — 1740.] The Jesuit in Canada. 165 

on its eventful career. It was a critical moment : an English 
vessel (1699) was actually threading its way amongst the 
channels above New Orleans, and Carolina planters were- 
quoting their charter which gave them the territory, not to 
the river only, but to the Western Ocean itself. By 1700 
the policy conceived thirty years before by Talon was effect- 
ively accomplished. A chain of forts from the St Lawrence 
to the Gulf of Mexico created "occupation": the English 
were hemmed in; and it only remained to claim by aid of 
arms, diplomacy or intrigue, the tributary waters of the Mis- 
sissippi eastwards to the Alleghany ridge. 

The Jesuits, a tower of strength to the Government not 
less than to the Church, were the unwearied The Jesuits 
pioneers in this perilous work of exploration. * nd discovery. 
In these achievements we see the Canadian Jesuit at his best. 
Politicians not less than missionaries, they won a hold over 
the Indian tribes which enabled them to penetrate where no 
soldier or settler could hope to pass. The Christian civilisa- 
tion which they impressed upon the savage race was never 
deep or lasting, and they were too readily content with a 
nominal acceptance of the faith which left the innate barbarism 
of the convert untouched. Yet we may recognise, in the 
Jesuit explorer of the 17 th century, the type of intrepid 
traveller — scientific, political and religious emissary in one — 
which France preeminently continues to produce down to our 
own day. 

It is instructive to consider the methods of administration 
of this vast colonial empire of France. The .. . „ 

r (b) Canadian 

supreme political control rested with the King and administra- 
his ministers at home : the colony received its 
chief officers, Governor, Commander-in-chief, and Intendant, or 
Director of finance and trade, by royal appointment. There 
was not the least approach to self-government, and apparently 
no desire for it. Public meetings were forbidden ; criticism 
of the ecclesiastical, civil or military powers were rigorously 



i66 Characteristics of New France. [CH. IV. 

punished. Emigration was entirely directed by the Crown : 
Huguenots wepe excluded : no individual could 
opu a io . sett i e ^ 0fj h a ving once settled, could leave, 
the colony without licence. 

Trade was restricted to privileged corporations or private 
Trade and monopolies. The cultivation of land was regu- 

Agrkuiture. lated by law; a farmer sowed wheat or reared 
cattle under direction. In Louisiana, at one time, a man might 
not sell a cow without an order from Paris. Prices were 
fixed from Quebec Competition or free enterprise was 
unknown. Commerce with English colonies or with foreign 
countries was disallowed ; the King was expected to take all 
unsaleable produce off the hands of the colony. Hence 
agriculture became rapidly careless and wasteful. Young 
men of spirit took to the woods as fur-hunters. Beaver skins, 
the staple product of the country, were, like tobacco in 
Virginia, the usual currency ; but they were the object of a 
monopoly. Taxation was light, and there was no prohibition 
of colonial manufacture, but the cost of the colony to the 
French exchequer was enormous. Population, in spite of 
emigration laboriously encouraged, increased but slowly, and 
at the Peace of Ryswick hardly exceeded 25,000. The 
greater part were dependent, sunk in poverty, averse to useful 
exertion. 

The land system, like the administration, was borrowed 

The Land and fr° m tne mother country. It was a revived 
its Tenure. feudalism. Great seignories, or baronial hold- 

ings, were granted to settlers of family, or to retired officers. 
Under them the tenants held their lands ; below them, in a 
third degree, came the tillers of the soil. Something of the 
aristocratic feeling of the ancien rhgime took root in the great 
estates upon the banks of the Chaudiere and the Richelieu. 
The sons of the seigneurs took to the woods or headed Indian 
forays. Trade and cultivation were beneath their dignity. 
Not a few returned to join the army under Turenne or Villars. 



1 660- 1 740.] Contrast between Canada & Netv England. 1 6j 

Such a land system was less progressive than that of the small 
freeholds of New England or of the plantations and manors 
of Virginia. For these were in either case the natural adapta- 
tion to the circumstances of soil, climate, and production : 
whilst in Canada an institution, already outworn, was imported 
from the Old World and applied as it stood. The colony was 
not left to provide for its own defence. Regi- Military 
ments of the royal army were stationed there to organisation, 
secure internal order and protection from attack. The his- 
tory of the English colonies shews repeatedly how great an 
advantage their Canadian enemies gained from their military 
organisation : unity of purpose and swiftness of execution 
marked French warfare; whilst indecision, delay, and mutual 
jealousies perpetually hampered the militia levies of New 
England or New York. 

Behind all the machinery of the administration stood the 
Church of Rome, the true nurse of New France, The church 
and to the end its real controlling power. If in Canada, 
through her devoted sons she led the expansion of the colony, 
none the less she tended to repress its independent activity ; 
never stimulating (as did the — perhaps equally narrow — 
Puritanism of New England) intelligence and education ; 
always supporting absolutism, and confirming in its flock an 
already ingrained habit of submission. 

The contrast is impressive when we turn to the English 
plantations a few hundred miles away : neglected, contrast of 
as we have seen, by Kings and ministers; English co- 
struggling unaided amidst hardship and disaster; onia spin ' 
but self-reliant, energetic, practical, tenacious of self-govern- 
ment. The difference is due partly to race, partly to historical 
antecedents. For the men of Massachusetts and Virginia were 
Englishmen who had carried with them not only the blood, but 
also the political inheritance, of their nation. 

New England never forgot that the English flag had once 
been planted on Quebec (in 1627 by Kirke), that a Virginian 



1 68 The Indians of Canada. [CH. IV. 

crew had swept the Bay of Fundy clear of Frenchmen 
(c) Canada ( I ^ I S)» tnat Nova Scotia derived its name from 
and the Eng- an Edinburgh Company (Alexander's Cliarter, 
162 1 ), and above all that Newfoundland, at 
the entrance to New France, was English still by virtue of 
discovery (1497) and repeated occupation. The English 
settlers thus grudged the French their possession of Acadia ; 
a menace by tne more that it was a menace to Boston 
sea - by sea, and that Port Royal, its chief town, 

was a very nest of privateers — a new Dunkirk, as it was 
said, out in the West. New England, with no royal fleet 
to protect her shores and fishing fleets, was never at ease 
when troublous times broke out in Europe. An English 
governor might always be sure of popularity in Providence 
or Boston if he held out hopes of an expedition against Port 
Royal or Louisbourg. 

Nor was attack by sea the worst calamity that might befall. 
The province of Canada impinged upon the 
English and Dutch colonies on the Atlantic sea- 
board. The frontier line was undetermined, and, in fact, un- 
explored. Each party intended to claim just so much of this 
unknown borderland as it could occupy and defend. The 
water-parting of the St Lawrence and the rivers flowing south 
and east is of no great elevation, but the dense forest which 
covered it was impenetrable except to Indians; to them it served 
as cover for stealthy forays against the isolated hamlets of the 
The Indians white man. From the nature of the fighting- 
of Canada. ground, the Indian held the key of the position 

during the Hundred Years' War of Englishman and French- 
man in the West. The Canadian readily made of him a 
friend and an ally : to the New Englander of the backwoods, 
embittered by experience, the Indian was little more than a 
wild animal, crafty and untameable. The water-ways of the 
Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Connecticut, and the Hudson 
were the four natural avenues of attack from the St Lawrence. 



1660 — 1740.] The Frontier War. 169 

With the conflict fought out along these streams and upon the 
shores of Lake Champlain are associated some of the most 
pathetic episodes of English colonial history. The memory of 
countless Indian forays, stimulated, planned and led by French 
officers, fur-hunters, or even missionaries, was burnt deep into 
the minds of the New England men. Englishmen, indeed, 
utilised Indians in warfare against Indians. But the charge is 
reiterated that French commanders permitted the torture, 
mutilation, murder and enslavement of the hapless victims 
of these raids, at the hands of the savage hordes whom 
Canadian rulers hurled against the English frontier. French 
records themselves prove that there is only too much 
truth in the terrible accusation, which explains the bitter- 
ness with which Massachusetts, especially, waged the war for 
the West. 

The four great wars fought against France in Europe 
between 1688 and 1763 had each their counter- The Frontier 
part in America. King William's war (1690-7), wars: 1690— 
as it was called, raged along the entire frontier I?I3 " 
from Maine to the Hudson. Indians destroyed townships 
within 25 miles of Boston. So serious was the danger that a 
joint conference of the colonies was, for the first time, called 
at New York to concert measures of defence. Acadia was 
captured but restored at Ryswick (1697). Five years later 
Queen Anne's war broke out. New Hampshire and Massa- 
chusetts were the objects of fierce and repeated attacks. 
The sack of Deerfield (1711) by a war party of savages under 
French command and the ferocious outrages which followed 
exasperated the colonists. Port Royal in 17 10 fell to a strong 
force of colonial and British troops ; and with it Acadia 
passed finally into English hands. At Utrecht, The Peace f 
Newfoundland, though under conditions which Utrecht, 1713. 
are still a source of grievance to the inhabitants, and Hudson's 
Bay, were definitely declared to be British possessions. 
Acadia was ceded, and the Iroquois admitted to be under the 



170 The Conflict of tJie Two Races. [CH. IV. 

protection of the English Crown. The province of New York 
thus extended its boundary to Lake Ontario, and vague rights 
over an* enormous area were acquired. But the Treaty of 
Utrecht did not determine boundaries. The " ancient limits " 
of Acadia meant wholly different things in Boston and in 
Montreal. The loss of this territory rankled deeply. Whilst 
England neglected its new conquest, France bent all her efforts 
to retain the allegiance of its inhabitants. Louisbourg, in 
Cape Breton, was built (171 6) to replace Port Royal, and 
became the strongest naval base in North America, whilst its 
privateers were a constant menace to American shipping. 

About 1720 we find French Governors urging imposing 
The conflict claims to dominion upon the ministers at Paris, 
still unsettled. «The English should be treated as interlopers 
upon the North American continent : at most they should be 
allowed to retain their existing settlements, but beyond these 
limits the whole of the lands west of the Alleghanies belongs by 
right of discovery to the French Crown.' Such claims seem to 
us, in the light of events, merely childish ; but down to the 
year of the capture of Quebec (1759) the issue of the struggle 
was regarded in America as by no means assured. It was in 
reality, as we now know, a question of the command of the sea, 
which after 17 13 belonged to England. But English naval 
policy in the Atlantic was not such as to inspire great con- 
fidence, whilst the military force of Canada was far more 
efficient than that of the colonies. There is no doubt that this 
uncertainty as to the result of the inevitable conflict was a 
powerful factor in deferring acute troubles between the 
American colonies and their mother country. 



1660 — 1740.] European States and Negro Slavery. 171 

Negro Slavery and the Plantations : The West Indies. 

The negxO slave trade which, as has been seen, was so 
important a factor in the progress of American The slave 
civilisation falls to be considered in the present Trade, 
stage of this history. Difficult as it is to do so, it is necessary 
to regard slavery and the slave trade in the light of economic 
expedients which Englishmen found existing in the colonies of 
other European powers at the time when we entered into 
competition with them for the ownership of the uncivilised world. 

The Portuguese, as the lords of Africa, were the first 
systematic dealers in negro slaves, as the Spaniards were the 
first great slave-holders. As a rule, the negroes were caught 
by other negroes and bartered by their captors to European 
traders, who had posts or " castles " on the slave coast. John 
Hawkins was the first, and for nearly a hundred years the only, 
Englishman to share in the traffic in human beings. During 
the sixteenth century this traffic was still a Portuguese 
monopoly, which, after 1600, was with calculating deliberate- 
ness invaded by the Dutch, who saw in it merely another 
profitable branch of over-sea commerce. Dutch traders in- 
troduced the first negroes into Virginia in 1620, and through 
them also Barbados and other islands derived, later, the large 
supply they needed for the sugar industry. About 1650 
English traders, now the keen rivals of the Dutch, got over 
their reluctance to mix in the business. West Indian planters 
were in urgent quest of cheap labour that would stand the 
climate. Neither Caribs nor Indians were available. Brazil 
and Hispaniola had long utilised the African negro. The 
prosperity of the Dutch Spice Islands in the same way de- 
pended on the slavery of Malays. 

Thus, after 1660, Englishmen addressed themselves seriously 
to wresting from the Dutch the traffic in slaves The En 
for American plantations. The African com- enter the trade, 
panies of London, dating from 1662, were 



172 The African Companies. [CH. IV. 

formed under powerful Court influence : the Duke of York 
(James II) was a prominent shareholder. The charter of 
1672 granted, in the usual way, rigidly exclusive- rights of 
trading in slaves along the entire west coast, 
companion" fr° m Sallee in Morocco to the Cape of Good 
the West Hope. Fortified factories were erected by the 

Coast, 166a. _ r . . , . • 1 , , 

Company at suitable points, mainly along the 
Gold Coast where the Dutch were already established in some 
strength. These forts were in no sense territorial possessions 
of the Crown, but were like the factory at Surat, trading posts 
for which rent was paid to native potentates, through whom 
negroes were procured. Not until the Seven Years' War did 
England aim at dominion on this forbidding coast. From the 
incursion of the English traders in 1662 into the slave 
markets of the Dutch sprang the war of 1663, which ended in 
the Treaty of Breda. To the politicians of the day the 
organisation of the slave-trading companies was but a natural 
step in the diversion of the Dutch carrying trade with the 
colonies of England to English traders and seamen. The 
Royal African Company quickly made good its footing, and 
supplied English plantations, chiefly in the West Indies, with 
slave labour direct. The number of slaves thus imported 
rapidly increased, displacing the indentured servants, hence- 
forth represented mainly by political and other prisoners, or by 
kidnapped children. In 1680 four to five thousand negroes 
were imported yearly into English plantations ; in 1 700 the 
yearly number was perhaps 25,000. The monopoly of the 
African Company was, in the interest of planters and ship- 
owners alike, abrogated in 1689, and the trade thrown open 
by Parliament to all British subjects. 

The Peace of Utrecht gave a new status to the English 

The ' Assien- slave trade. England now acquired, as part of 

to,' 1713. the general settlement of affairs, the "Assiento" 

(or " agreement ") which secured to this country the exclusive 

right of supplying negroes to the Spanish Indies. The bargain 



1660 — 1740.] The effects of Negro Slavery. 173 

came to an end in 1750. As part of the profits of the slave 
traffic now accrued to the Crown England committed herself 
as a nation to the maintenance of a trade, which we now know to 
have been shameful in itself, politically hurtful, and economi- 
cally, in spite of appearances, unsound. The transport of slaves 
continued to increase during the century. Jamaica was the 
chief English customer, then came Carolina. The industrial 
future of the tropical and sub-tropical regions of America was 
in large part determined soon after 1 700 by the energy of the 
English purveyors of slaves. The height of the traffic, how- 
ever, was not reached until the century was drawing to a close, 
when the yearly export of slaves from Africa to America 
reached 100,000. 

Without considering the general political consequences of 
African slavery we may note its economic „. 

J J The economic 

effects upon the development of the English effects of 
colonies which admitted it. In the first place it negro s avef y- 
must be allowed that without negro slavery the tropical 
regions of America would not, and probably Some 

could not, have been developed by Europeans reasons in its 
at all. Neither the heavy work of clearing the suppo 
forest — the first labour of the settler — nor the daily toil in the 
plantations, was possible to the white man in latitudes between 
Virginia and the River Plate. The civilised world depends 
upon that region for three articles of necessity : cotton, sugar, 
and coffee. But for the slave-trader each of these may well 
have been the luxuries of the rich. They are produced 
to-day by free labour, but that would not be there but for the 
slavery of which it is the descendant. Nor, in a broader view 
of political well-being, can it be denied that a slave system has 
proved consistent with the highest achievements of civilisation. 
Ancient Athens was in its noblest days a community in which 
the ruder manual work was habitually performed by a servile 
class. So, too, in the great crisis in 1776 Virginia, then a 
colony of slave-holders, produced as fine a type of patriot, 



174 Evil consequences of Slavery. [CH. IV. 

legislator and soldier as the free colonies of New England. 
Admitting, however, that under all the circum- 

/t.\ The 

weight of stances a slave system was inevitable in tropical 
experience America in the 17th and 18th centuries we 

may still recognise its inherent drawbacks. 
Negroes being cheap, in regular supply, docile and physically 
strong, superseded white labour, not only in colonies like 
Jamaica, but in the comparatively temperate climates of 
Maryland and Virginia. In this way true immigration was 
obstructed, if not altogether stopped. The white population 
of Barbados, for instance, steadily declined after 1675. 
Again, negro labour, being mechanical and unintelligent, could 
only be devoted to uniform cultivation of one crop, such as 
sugar, cotton, or tobacco. Hence variety and experiment in 
production were rarely attempted ; in Jamaica cocoa and 
indigo were early abandoned for sugar mainly for this reason. 
This dependence upon one staple crop was of doubtful 
advantage to a colony. Further, the presence of the negro, by 
degrading all manual work in the eyes of the European, put 
a stigma also upon skilled labour, thus discouraging manu- 
facture and mechanical invention. Hence a slave colony 
made no progress in the industrial arts. If we add to this the 
constant dread of negro risings, we see that the slave system 
conspired with the influences of the climate to produce in 
the slave-holding communities a lack of that elasticity, self- 
confidence and dogged vitality, that strong bond of common 
rights and interests, which marked New England then and 
have marked Australasia and Canada since. It may, indeed, 
be fairly contended that, bad as slavery was for the enslaved 
race, it was after all only less bad for its masters. 

As regards the history of the West Indies we have touched 

upon the main source of its interest in treating 
indie's and* or " negro slavery. By the middle of the 18th 
slavery, century the principal islands, Barbados and 

Jamaica, had become typical slave-holding 



1660 — 1740.] The West Indies. 175 

communities. The Barbados whites, in 1673, numbered 
22,000, the negroes 45,000 : the island was then, next to 
Virginia, the richest possession of the Crown. Eighty years 
later the whites had fallen to 17,000, whilst the negroes were 
four times that number. Estates had increased in size and 
production was practically limited to sugar. In Jamaica the 
negroes outnumbered the Europeans nearly tenfold : it was 
perhaps the best single customer of the African slave-trader. 
Yet both Barbados and Jamaica were vigorous 
supporters of English influence in the islands, becomes the 
taking an effective share both in colonisation prominent 

. colony. 

and in war. In the Dutch and French wars of 
the time islands were taken and retaken, with the general 
result that English power was extended at the expense of all 
European rivals. Islands, like St Vincent or Dominica, hitherto 
neglected, came under partial occupation. The Buccaneers, 
the sea-rovers of mixed race, who waged irregular The Buc 
war against Spain in Western waters down to caneers, 
1700, had their head-quarters in the ports of x 25— 17 °°' 
Jamaica and the neighbouring islands. Ruffianly in their 
methods, owning no political allegiance, they were yet powerful 
agents in throwing open the Spanish seas to trade and settle- 
ment. They forced an entry and settlers followed. Their 
captains were on good terms with English and French 
governors in the islands. The Council of Jamaica gave 
Morgan, their most notable captain, a roving commission : he 
sacked Panama, winning, as it was officially declared, "very 
high and honourable applause for his noble service." Charles 
II made him a knight : and with governors and councils 
shared the proceeds of his ventures after the fashion of 
Elizabeth or Leicester in the days of Drake. It was easier to 
indulge the lawless spirit than to get rid of it, and piracy, that 
made no distinction between Spaniards and other victims, 
infested the Bahamas channel well into the 18th century. 

Mention may be made here of the Darien scheme, which 



176 The Darien Scheme. [CH. IV. 

was a wild project for securing to a Scottish company the 
The Darien monopoly of the trade with the far East by 
Scheme, way of the Isthmus of Panama. Its import- 

ance belongs to the domestic politics of William 
Ill's reign rather than to the story of British expansion. 
The Government and the mercantile interests of London 
strongly opposed the scheme, as certain to involve conflict 
with Spain and to end in disaster. The event justified the 
harshest criticism. The Scottish Act of Incorporation was 
passed in 1695. By 1698 the remnant of the 3000 settlers 
were seeking refuge from the climate, and the Spaniard, in 
New York. It was easy to attribute failure to the Dutch 
sympathies of the King, grudging the success of a new 
competitor in the far eastern trade. In truth, it was a vast, 
ill-considered venture, based on no knowledge of actual 
conditions of the region ; its promoters were oddly lacking 
in that caution and practical wisdom, which have since 
rendered Scotsmen so important and so successful a factor 
in British expansion. 



The English in India, 1660 — 1740. 

The history of the English in India down to the period of 
the conflict with the French is comparatively uneventful. It 
will be sufficient to dwell upon such incidents only, first, in 
India, second, at home, as indicate the lines on which the 
British power was to be subsequently established. 

By his marriage Charles II acquired from Portugal (166 1) 

the sovereignty of the island of Bombay, which 

acquh-ecTby in 1 668 was handed over to the East India 

the crown, Company as a fortified possession of the Crown. 

Bombay was the first portion of the soil of 



1660 — 174°-] The English in India. 177 

India to own the dominion of the King of England. Its 
position was thus superior to that of Madras which was held 
on lease at a rent from a native prince. Being an island it was 
to some extent independent of the hostility of the Moghul or of 
his enemies, whilst its area (30 miles by 8) was sufficient to 
admit of large development. The factory at Surat, now at 
the height of its importance, was attacked more than once by 
Sivaji, the great chieftain who created the Mahratta power; and 
although the English there did not directly suffer, it was decided, 
for the sake of peace and security, to remove the Presidency to 
Bombay. The new factory speedily grew in importance owing 
to the convenience of the situation and the nature of the popu- 
lation of the island. In spite of its unhealthiness, Bombay has 
ever since been the chief seat of trade and shipping in India. 

The policy of the Company was generally one of abstention 
from interference with native affairs. Little was 
known of India beyond the limits of the Factories, non°inte° 
and no desire existed for territory or for alliances, f^nce in 

1 • r India. 

The wisdom of this course was proved by the 
attempt made by Sir Josiah Child, the ambitious Governor 
of the Company in London, to depart from it. About 1684 he 
initiated a policy of compelling native powers to grant trading 
privileges by force. Thus he detained ships of the Moghul 
engaged in carrying pilgrims to Mecca. He directed the seizure 
of the town of Hoogly in Bengal. In consequence, Aurungzebe, 
the fighting Emperor, ordered the expulsion of the English from 
the entire peninsula. Bengal was abandoned, Masulipatam 
lost, and Madras endangered. Child was promptly disowned. 
The President of Bombay made humble submission, and a 
timely indemnity in cash was sent to the Nawab of Bengal. 
The rulers of the imperial provinces were not anxious to carry 
out their master's orders, which would have caused the loss 
of the profits, regular and irregular, which accrued to them 
from the English trade. Henceforth the Company reverted 
to the old policy of non-intervention in political affairs. Bombay 
w. E. 12 



*78 the Company in Bengal. [CH. IV. 

grew apace ; the factors returned to Bengal. A new Factory 
was established nearer to the mouth of the river Hoogly than 
the old one had been. Chuttanutti, Govendpore 
founded and Kalicotta, neighbouring villages, were pur- 

chased in 1696 and, attacked by a native rising, 
were fortified by the English, with the consent of the Nawab, 
by the erection of Fort William. 

This group of events is of critical importance. Fort 
William with the adjacent land and villages which 
the English it protected extended for six miles along the 
inBengai, river. They formed a territorial possession, with 

rights of justice and police over the native inhabi- 
tants. Fortifications and garrison secured the settlement against 
surprise, and gave a new status to the Company. Later on, 
from one of these straggling, unhealthy villages, now sheltered 
by British arms and British justice, sprang the City of Palaces, 
the modern Calcutta. At the end of the 17th century the 
Crown possessed, as yet, no right of sovereignty in Bengal ; an 
English company owned land on perpetual lease, with special 
immunities and privileges of self-defence and administration. 
Other Factories, at Patna, Dacca and Balasore were simply 
warehouses, with resident agencies, like the original house at 
Surat, without any political rights. Calcutta now rapidly in- 
creased in importance. Neither the troubles which disturbed 
the Moghul empire after the death of Aurungzebe (1707), 
nor the standing liability to Mahratta invasion, affected 
the prosperity of the Presidency in Bengal. Exemption from 
transit duties was secured in 17 17. The trading was mainly 
in native cotton, cloth, muslins, silk, opium and saltpetre. 
There was some competition from other European factories, 
Danes, French and Dutch all having agencies on the delta. 
But the dense population of lower Bengal and its peaceful 
character were favourable to a profitable commerce ; the private 
trade of the Company's officials in that region was the most 
lucrative to be had in India. 




CAMB UNIV. PRES3 



180 The Company in London. . [CH. IV. 

once more the disaster of invasion from beyond the Indus. 
Nadir Shah captured and sacked Delhi in 1739, and though 
he did not destroy the dynasty, but returned to his own Persian 
kingdom with enormous plunder, the shock to the political 
fabric of India was felt throughout the peninsula. In the 
Empire, thus helpless and disorganised, the Mahrattas were now 
(1740) the dominant power. Their raids, led by chiefs of great 
military ability, such as Bajee Rao and Holkar, reduced not 
only Delhi, but the fertile provinces of Oudh, Bengal, Orissa, 
and the Carnatic to tribute. Since 1730 they had been the 
undisputed masters of the western province from Mysore to 
Guzerat, and were gradually spreading their power, resting 
solely on force of arms, over the districts of Central India. 
The way for ambitious and far-sighted intrigue lay wide open 
in India about 1740. 

In 1 741 Monsieur Dupleix arrived at Pondicherry as 

Governor of the French Company of 'the Indies. 
Dupleix";^ 1 . ° f From this event dates the appearance in the 

field of Indian politics of a new force which 
rapidly brought about a crisis which perhaps in any event was 
inevitable. It was the activity and aims of the brilliant French 
Governor which specifically compelled the English Company 
to abandon its attitude of non-interference in native rivalries 
and intrigue. 

The exclusive trading privileges of the Company, ignored as 

we saw by Charles I, and restored by Cromwell, 
of the Com- 6 were further confirmed by a charter of Charles II 
imZ-?^ ™*' ( l66l )> Tne policy °f confining the Eastern 

trade to one privileged corporation was from 
time to time strenuously opposed in the interests of the traders 
of the kingdom. The Charter, it must be remembered, was 
granted by the royal prerogative and did not come under 
control of Parliament. The charter of Charles II empowered 
the E.I.C. to resist private traders ("interlopers") by force, to 
protect its Factories by fortifications, and to exercise judicial 



1660 — 1740.] The disputed monopoly. 181 

powers, thus materially raising the status of the Company in 
India. After the Revolution the attacks of merchants outside 
the Company became more persistent. Parliament, hence- 
forward the controlling power in all that concerned trade and 
plantations, was now appealed to, and without waiting for 
sanction traders in Liverpool and Bristol opened up trade 
with such eastern ports as lay outside the operations of the 
Company. New England, even, joined in a traffic which now 
and then degenerated into piracy. 

The arguments for the Company as reiterated in the years 
1688 — 1695 were mainly these. The security of 
Englishmen in the east was to a large extent due ^monopoly 
to the skill with which the E.I.C. had established 
permanent posts in India, to the honesty and good faith of 
their Factors, to their abstention from political intrigue, to 
their orderliness, and their respect for native sentiment. Now 
the irresponsible trader, concerned only for his own immediate 
profits, shared none of the scruples of an organised Company, 
whose prosperity depended on native good-will, and which 
was directly amenable to the Crown. To the Company were 
due the conditions under which a peaceful and organised trade 
with India was rendered possible ; to the Company, therefore, 
should belong the profit. 

In 1698, however, a rival corporation of traders was 
authorised by Act, but after ten years' experience its members 
were glad to merge their dwindling resources into the original 
Company, which as the " United Company " acquired for the 
first time a parliamentary charter. Under this the E.I.C. was 
administered until the exploits of Clive rendered an entire 
reconstruction necessary in 1773. In 1740 it had a capital of 
about three millions sterling upon which a dividend of seven 
per cent, had been paid for some years. The Company, as the 
chief financial power in the City, commanded easy credit and 
was in the habit of making advances of money, not always 
voluntary, to the Exchequer. 



1 82 



CHAPTER V. 

EXPANSION BY CONQUEST: CANADA AND INDIA. 
I740— 1763. 

We have now reached a critical period in the expansion 

of the Empire, a succession of wars arising 

i73*-i783- ar8 = directly out of the determination to extend or to 

preserve British trade and sovereignty beyond 

the seas. These wars merged in each case into continental 

struggles whereby their true meaning in English history has 

become partly obscured. The first (1739 — 1748) was a war 

with Spain for a share in the Spanish-American trade, out of 

which grew a war with France in America and 

conquer ° m India. But, because England was led to take 

or to retain a subordinate part in the struggle between Maria 

colonies. . 

Theresa and Frederic II, the war is named from 
its European but, for England, unimportant, aspect the War 
of the Austrian Succession. The next conflict is known as 
the Seven Years' War ; and here, too, the title is derived from 
the continental struggle, England's share in which was secondary 
to her real effort, which was to secure America for the English 
race, and India for English trade, and, in the process, to obtain 
supreme control of the sea-power. In reality, the war waged 
by England in Germany in alliance with the King of Prussia 
was undertaken as a grand diversion of French resources from 
the true seat of operations in Canada, in the Carnatic, and on 
the Sea. This Pitt expressed by saying that he would conquer 
French America in Germany. 



1740 — 1763-] Expansion by War. 183 

The third war, that with America (1775 — 1782), though 
strikingly different both in character and in results, had still 
for its object colonial commerce and dominion. Pieced on to 
it, as it were, by the Franco- American alliance of 1778, was 
a fourth war (1778 — 1783), in which France and Spain were 
the aggressors, their motives being the overthrow of British 
trade and ocean power, and, generally, the undoing of the work 
of the Seven Years' War in America and the East. 

During this period, therefore, empire was won — and lost — 
by arms. The foundation of new plantations, Expansion 
which in the previous era (1660 — 1740) went by war not by 
on side by side with acquisition by conquest, 
had, for the moment, reached its limit. The thirteen colonies, 
for example, the future United States of 1776, were now 
complete. Yet the characteristic feature of British expan- 
sion — the silent, inevitable, pressure of the race into the 
wilderness — was perpetually at work, in time of war as in time 
of peace. From Maine to Georgia there was always the steady 
pushing back of borders, and in the West Indies new islets and 
unreclaimed lands were being brought under cultivation. 

The present chapter treats of two of the wars just alluded 
to : the wars which preceded and followed the The eriod 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. From the point of 1739— 1763 one 
view of the history of the Empire it is better to war ' 
regard them as one; for the peace of 1748 settled nothing in 
colonial affairs, and was, in India and America, hardly more 
than an armistice. This period of 24 years (1739 — 1763) opens 
with a conflict with Spain in American waters. The inter- 
vention of France (1744) throws the original cause of the war 
into the background ; the struggle centres in the rivalry of 
England and France in India and America. After a short 
breathing time (1748), the struggle is renewed, both in west 
and east, and shortly merges into the Seven Years' War. The 
controlling genius of this later time is William 

tv,,. , • • , , William Pitt 

ritt, whose sagacity perceives the true character 



184 The Spanish War, 1739. [CH. V. 

of the war. To him it was due that the war became a question 
of colonial empire and not a mere fight for Hanover. He gave 
subsidies, indeed, to Frederic II ; but to the Americans he sent 
Howe, Forbes and Wolfe, with armies and fleets. He rendered 
to his country a service greater still He lifted the idea of 
British empire to a new level. We have seen how the colonists 
resented the view of colonial policy which since 1688 com- 
mercial interests at home had impressed upon Parliament and 
ministries. To Walpole the colonists were so many producers 
and consumers. To Pitt they were fellow-citizens, whose 

progress and victories, rights and aspirations, 
to tti'e Colonies. were tne natural concern of the mother-country, 

whilst her history and power were, in turn, the 

pride of the daughter communities. Whatever Pitt's defects 

as a statesman, in the history of British expansion he must 

stand always amongst its inspiring figures. 

The year 1739 marks the close of a great peace era. 

The conflict Walpole had carried through a consistent policy 

with Spain, with tenacity and with success. In his eyes, 
1739. . . 

peace was not only an end in itself, but an 

essential condition of material prosperity and of dynastic 

security. In foreign as in home affairs everything gave way to 

this master-aim. But the struggle with Spain had been 

threatening for some years past. As early as 1733 France and 

Spain had, unknown to the Minister, drawn together in a 

. . Family Compact to resist the commercial and 

Its origin. ' . ' r 

colonial encroachments of England. The loss 
of Gibraltar and of Minorca rankled at Madrid. Georgia, the 
latest British colony, pressed closely upon Florida, a large, un- 
defined area, still part of Spanish dominion. But there was a 
more serious difference still. By the 'Assiento'(p. 172) England 
had the right to send one ship yearly tor general trade into 
Spanish-Indian seas. But side by side with this legal commerce 
an enormous unauthorised trade had arisen in Spanish America, 
mainly with the English colonies : and, being of great convenience 



174 — l 7&3-] England and Spain. 185 

to Spanish planters, was connived at by officials on the spot. 
The seamen engaged in the traffic found the profits good, 
and, being largely New Englanders, had no scruple about 
Spanish rights, and were keen enough to run the needful risks. 
Spain now determined to stop this irregular 
trading by stringent means. Legally, she was of learch. ht 
justified in her policy of exclusion, which rested 
on the same law of nations as that on which the English 
Navigation Acts were founded. But the right of search which 
belonged to her in her own waters was extended by her officers 
to the high seas. For some years before 1739, complaints from 
West Indian and Boston merchants poured in to the Board of 
Trade : unoffending ships had been searched, seized and carried 
into Havannah or Cartagena; their officers and crews ill-used 
and imprisoned ; cargoes condemned and plundered. In spite 
of much exaggeration — 'Captain Jenkins' ear' was probably a 
sample of it — cleverly turned to party purposes, it is certainly 
true that Spain defended her legal right by illegal and violent 
means. 

The English temper rapidly became warlike. The people 
had, perhaps, grown weary of too long peace; 
they were irritated with Spain whose power they in^EngUnd!* 
despised, and whose action now offended their 
interests and roused their passions. Two things may fairly 
be alleged in defence of British opinion. One, that a State 
excluding the rest of the world from a vast and rich inheritance, 
which she is herself incapable of developing, does so at her 
own risks : the other, that a State unable to uphold her regu- 
lations without violently offending the rights of strangers will 
find those regulations ignored by all who are strong enough. 
In the autumn of 1739 England demanded the renunciation 
of the right of search, and the admission of British claims in 
the matter of Georgia. As was expected, war followed. 
Walpole, lacking moral courage to resign, remained in 
office. 



1 86 England and France [CH. V. 

His fears were justified. It was evident that behind Spain 
_,_ stood France, hoping to recover Acadia. The 

The course > r o 

of the war, Jacobites became active. Meanwhile armaments 

both on land and at sea were in a deplorable 
condition. At the outset the war was confined to American 
waters. Vernon began well, by taking Porto Bello (1740), 
Anson, purposing to co-operate with him at the Isthmus, 
rounded Cape Horn and took some prizes ; but, Vernon having 
disastrously failed off Cartagena and later at Santiago de Cuba, 
Anson sailed home across the Pacific (1740 — 1744). France 
joined Spain in 1 744 ; the naval war was carried into the Medi- 
terranean; but in 1747 the French fleets were destroyed by 
Hawke, and, on the sea, England, though with no great credit, 
triumphed over the two Powers. La Bourdonnais was busy 
in the East, as we shall see, and took Madras (1746), whilst in 
America an English squadron enabled the New England men 
to capture Louisbourg (1746). On the continent England fared 
badly; and the Jacobite rising of 1745 proved an important 
diversion in favour of France. Commerce on both sides had 
suffered greatly from the war and peace was desired both in 
London and Paris. Each party surrendered its 
results" 01 " 8 '^ g ams ') an d tne Spanish right of search was not 
even mentioned in the Treaty. In India and in 
America momentous issues remained undecided. It is now ne- 
cessary to follow events first in the West and, secondly, in India. 
The struggle between England and France in America, 
j between 1740 and 1760, can only be regarded as 
for N.America, one and continuous, more acute at certain 
1740—17 • stages, but never laid aside. If a dividing 

moment must be chosen, it should be fixed, not in 1748, but 
in 1755, when the mother country once for all took the cause 
of the Plantations into her own hands and carried the conflict 
through to its close. 

At the outset of the period we find the exploration of 
the West still an object of keen interest to the French 



NORTh 



THE 




GULF OF 
ST LAWRENCE 




To face p. 186 



CAMB. UNIV. PRESS 



NORTHERN NEW FRANCE 

AND 

THE BRITISH COLONIES 
L750 1760. 




1740 — 1763-] 9n North America. 187 

administrators. From Louisiana, in 1739, travellers, in vain 
search for the Pacific, penetrated to the mountains 

. . French ex- 

of Colorado ; the region of Dakota and the pansion in the 
easternmost range of the Rocky Mountains were West - 
reached from the Missouri in 1743; further north, in 1752, 
the Saskatchewan was ascended to a point some hundred miles 
west of the great lakes of Manitoba. This activity in discovery 
had a definite motive. In the uncertainty of boundaries actual 
occupation alone secured possession of new territory : and it 
was, perhaps, of equal importance to attach Indian tribes of the 
far West to French alliance, in the hope of thwarting English 
expansion by a barrier of hostile savagery. 

But the French had outlined another and more trustworthy 
line of defence. Since the Peace of Utrecht it 

i_ • /-. • ^ ne chain of 

had been a cardinal aim of Canadian policy to forts in the 
unite by a chain of fortified posts the two FrenchWest - 
colonies of Canada and Louisiana. Already, by 1740, im- 
portant links in this chain had been created. On the extreme 
northeastern wing Louisbourg guarded the mouth of the St 
Lawrence against naval attack, and menaced especially the 
new English possession of Acadia. Passing westwards, a fort 
at Crown Point upon Lake Champlain (built 1731) barred the 
one practicable route from New York to the St Lawrence, by 
which the English might cut off Montreal and the Lakes from 
access to the sea. Frontenac, on the north shore of Ontario, 
guarded the outlet of the Lake ; Fort Niagara secured the com- 
munications from Erie to Ontario and shut out the English 
from their Iroquois connections across the Lakes. Posts on 
the Miamis and the Wabash led on to Louisiana, where at the 
entrance of the southern colony, Fort Chartres blocked the 
waterway of the Mississippi to New Orleans. It remained to 
secure by occupation the basin of the Ohio, whose upper 
valleys lay open to the hungry traders and 
prospectors of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Let CO unt r y hl ° 
us remember that in spite of the lordly claim 



1 88 The English frontier. [CH. V. 

to dominion over this vast region nothing in the way of 
settlement or systematic trading had been effected by the 
French. The white population of their two colonies, perhaps 
60,000 in all (1750), left no margin for overflow to an area 
whose diameter from Frontenac to New Orleans measured 
1500 miles. Explorers had paddled along the Lakes, and 
down the great river to the Gulf of Mexico, scarcely turning to 
the right hand or the left, and forthwith the entire basin was 
claimed by right of ' occupation.' 

Turning to the defensive front of the English colonies, we 
The English f* n d Acadia, on the extreme right, ill-governed, 
line - disaffected, and feebly garrisoned : a source of 

weakness rather than of protection. Maine and New England 
were fenced in by the dense forest which covered the 
water-shed of the St Lawrence, and which was pierced by 
the Penobscot, Kennebec and Connecticut — all avenues of 
Indian attack. On the edge of the wilderness the isolated 
hamlets were defended by a stockade of logs to serve as a 
rallying place in an Indian surprise. New York was fortunate 
in the alliance of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, who held the 
forests of the Upper Hudson, and whose influence in native 
counsels was, though declining, a sore hindrance to French 
intrigue. Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario, built (1727) under 
pressure of Governor Burnett, and now falling to decay, was 
the extreme outpost of the colony, and, as giving access to the 
Lakes, was jealously regarded by the French. To the south, 
Pennsylvania and Virginia were hitherto far removed from 
the French sphere, and, although their limit of occupation 
was steadily spreading to the Alleghanies, in neither colony did 
opinion take account of what might pass beyond the watershed. 

Down to 1750 the conflict needs but brief relation. There 

is first, and always, the Indian trouble on the 

toi75o: S th<f g ' New England border and along the upper 

fart ian War " Hudson. This was the standing peril of the 

frontier hamlet and lonely farmstead. It was a 

1 



1740 — 1763] The War in 1748. 189 

scourge terrible from its surprises, its fierce cruelty, perhaps 
even more from its ever present suspense. "There was no 
warning, no time for concert, perhaps none for flight. Sudden 
as the leaping panther a pack of human wolves burst out from 
the forest, did their work and vanished." We must picture 
to ourselves forays of this kind, planned, and often led, by 
Canadian officers, as the unchanging background of these years 
of war. 

It had been a definite object of the French, since 17 13, 
to recover Acadia, which, in truth, the Walpole 
ministry had made no attempt to reconcile to Louisbourg, 
English rule. A persistent course of intrigue I74 ' 
carried on through the Church by Jesuit emissaries marked 
this interval. In 1744, formal hostilities were begun by an 
attack from Canada in force. One small post fell to the 
French, but Annapolis (Port Royal) was relieved and Acadia 
remained British. Now followed the striking exploit of the 
capture of Louisbourg. Both as the key to the St Lawrence, 
and as the shelter of French privateers, this strong naval 
station was a most desirable capture. If the traders of Boston 
or Salem hung back when the sagacious Shirley, the Governor 
of Massachusetts, proposed the bold stroke, it was because 
it seemed too mad a scheme for a provincial militia alone to 
attempt. But by sheer persistence Shirley had his way, and 
Louisbourg fell after a siege of three months (1746), a British 
squadron preventing relief by sea. The importance of this 
success lay, not only in its strategic consequences, but in the 
self confidence engendered in the New Englanders. It was 
therefore a keen disappointment to the Colonies when at 
the Peace (1748) Louisbourg was handed back to the enemy 
in exchange for Madras. But events were already preparing 
which showed that the conflict had hardly been interrupted by 
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

As early as 1740 English traders had begun to find their 
way across the Alleghanies into the basin of the Ohio. By 



190 The Ohio Valley. [CH. V. 

1748 they had made good their footing in the Indian villages 

known as Logstown and Pickawillany ; others 

English trad- , , , ,,. . . . T _ , 

ers across the even reached the Mississippi. In Canada these 
Aiieghames, yearly excursions were, rightly enough, re- 
garded as foreshadowing territorial claims. In 

1749 the Governor despatched a small expedition to confirm 
French ownership of the Ohio country by formal possession. 
For the Ohio river-basin lay, in French contention, wholly 
within the limits of the colony of Louisiana. But Celoron, 
who commanded, found to his dismay, that the Indians bluntly 
refused to expel the English traders, or to admit his authority. 

In 1 75 1 the newly formed Ohio Company was invested by 
George II with rights over half a million acres of land to be 
located by prospectors in this same region. To secure this 
advanced position, the Assembly of Virginia was urged to build 
a fort at the fork of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands. 
But in vain. It was far off: there was even doubt whether 
the site would not be proved to be within the Pennsylvanian 
grant. Precious time was lost. The French were on the 
alert. Governor Dinwiddie pressed his Assembly to move. 
George Washington, a smart young major of militia, was sent 
(1753) to meet the advancing French detachment with formal 
protest; early in 1754 a weak Virginian force took possession 
of the spot. General Duquesne, a few weeks 

Duquesne r , 

on the Ohio after, expelled the English, and in April 1754 
Forks, 1754- t h e Canadians were strongly entrenched in their 
place. However diplomacy might treat it at home, in America 
the expulsion of the Virginian outpost on the Ohio was held an 
overt act of war. The final struggle between France and 
England on the continent had begun. 

The conduct of the colonial Assemblies, in this critical 
autumn of 1754, is most instructive in view of 

The Colonial .„ , ,. c , „, 

Assemblies Grenville s policy ten years alterwards. lhe 
and the crisis. Governors of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New 
York urge in vain the danger of the situation. Virginia has a 



174° — 1 7^3-] Characteristics of the Colonies. 19! 

dispute with Dinwiddie on the question of a small fee upon 
grants of title to land. The Governor, under precise instruc- 
tion from home, is not free to concede the point. The 
Assembly, more keen to humiliate Dinwiddie than to guard the 
future of its own race, refuses all military aid. The Quakers 
and stolid Germans of Pennsylvania openly avow, through 
their Assembly, that they will accept French rule rather than 
yield their privileges, which meant at the moment the right to 
tax unoccupied lands. New York, in spite of the peril which 
threatened its border, was indifferent. New England alone, 
knowing what a French war meant, armed and vigilantly 
watched its Indian frontier. We are so accustomed to regard 
the American Colonies as 'united states' that we do not 
realise that outside New England, they recognised, at this 
period, no common tie but that of British sovereignty. 
Diverse in origin and history, separated by broad tracts of 
difficult country, communicating with each other mainly by sea, 
each colony had developed a special character, and no crisis 
had yet arisen, south of New England, to call forth a higher 
sense of political duty. The Assemblies, interested exclusively 
in their local affairs, were rarely led by men of much capacity. 
To save public money, to uphold the rights of the colony 
against a neighbour, even more than against the mother-country, 
and to bait the Governor, were at the time the most attractive 
functions of the Burgesses of the middle and southern pro- 
vinces. To Governors Dinwiddie and Shirley, clear-sighted 
and sagacious men, sorely-tried in their thankless posts, 
American 'patriotic' historians are now beginning to render 
something of their true meed of gratitude. 

A first step towards union was, however, taken in 1754. 
Under much pressure from England seven . 

colonies sent delegates to Albany to secure by Congress at 
joint policy the good-will of the border Indian Albany ' '754- 
tribes in whose lands lay so terrible a power. Benjamin 
Franklin, from Philadelphia, the strongest man at the Con- 



192 Plan of Operations. [CH. V. 

gress, then urged— for the first time in American history — a 
still more decisive measure of federation : a standing council 
of defence for the thirteen colonies. But the colonies would 
have none of it, as fettering their independence, nor was the 
Crown favourable to a project which created a central power 
which might prove even more stubborn than the separate 
Assemblies. But the Congress accomplished two things. 
The Indians of the New York border, at least, had been 
secured, and the delegates had been convinced of the urgency 
of the danger that threatened from French intrigue. 

Meantime the ministry at home listened to Dinwiddie's re- 
ports, and in February 1755 Braddock arrived in Virginia with 
two British regiments, under instructions to expel the French 
from the Ohio. At the same time a general 
Government ' P* an °^ operations was laid down which governed 
intervenes, the course of the war till its close. From the 
operations side of Virginia, the French were to be driven 
from Fort Duquesne, and thrown back upon the 
Lakes. From New York, Niagara was to be attacked, and 
the French line of communications broken at a vital point. 
Oswego was to be made the headquarters of a flotilla to com- 
mand Lake Ontario and the outlet of the St Lawrence, thus 
rendering possible a descent upon Montreal. By the co-opera- 
tion of New England and the Jerseys, the approach by Lake 
Champlain was to be strongly held, and a passage forced by 
the Richelieu into the heart of Canada. The extreme right of 
the English line, Acadia, was to be secured at all costs, and 
Louisbourg once more taken, as a preliminary to a naval attack 
upon Quebec. A reference to the Map (p. 186) will show 
that this scheme of offensive strategy aimed at a converging 
attack upon Montreal and Quebec from the west, the south, 
and the east. In 1760 this was finally accomplished in the 
fall of Montreal. 

The course of the war can now be readily understood. 
The attack on Fort Duquesne led by Braddock himself ended 



174° — 1 7^3-] Braddock's defeat and its consequences. 193 

(in July, 1755) in an overwhelming disaster. The nature of 
the warfare was now made clear. For it, English _ . , , 

' ° Braddock s 

troops and generals, trained in European tactics, defeat, July, 
were likely to be of slight avail. Braddock I755 * 
was described by one who saw him at work as 'a general 
chosen for being disqualified for the service he is employed in 
in almost every respect.' But we must not forget the wretched 
support which he received from the Assembly, and the parsi- 
mony and indifference which refused him supplies and trans- 
port. The consequences of his defeat were ff . 
quickly seen. The Indians of the Ohio came Indian raids: 
over to the winning side. They swarmed across I755 " 7- 
the mountain ridge, pushing their forays along the streams of 
Virginia and Pennsylvania. This border war of 1755-6 was 
one of the most terrible experiences of American history ; and 
yet the Assemblies of these two colonies remained supine. The 
Quakers of Philadelphia used all the arts of obstruction to hinder 
measures of self-defence. They urged conciliation and peace, 
and, had they offered to proceed in person to the tormented 
frontier, there to face the hideous massacre to which they aban- 
doned helpless women and children, they might have won some 
respect for their convictions. Not until the Indians touched, at 
a point some 60 miles from the capital, the Quaker settlements, 
did the Friends assent to the cry of their fellow colonists for 
arms and men to rid the province of the awful scourge. 

In the next year (1756) the French easily repelled the 
attack on Niagara. Montcalm took Oswego, 
and enabled to concentrate his strength upon I7 ? 6 * mpaign of 
the centre pressed southwards along Lake 
Champlain and built an impregnable post at Ticonderoga. In 
this way the French threatened the colonies with the fate 
suggested for them a century before : they could now hope, 
by the capture of the valley of the Hudson, to thrust in a 
wedge between New England and the middle provinces and 
reduce each in turn. 

w. e. 13 



194 Pitt in power. [ch. V. 

In 1757 English prospects sank even lower. Louisbourg 

, he was unsuccessfully attacked. At the opposite 

French end of the line, on the Lakes and the Ohio, the 

vie onous. French steadily strengthened their position, as 

the Indians hastened to the winning side. On the centre, the 

critical point of the operations, they took the advanced post of 

the British army at Fort William Henry. But at this extreme 

limit of their success the French victory was disgraced by the 

massacre of English prisoners by the Canadian Indians, and 

still more by the horrible barbarities, which, under the eyes of 

French officials and population, were inflicted upon the English 

women and children who had been carried off to Montreal. It 

was clear that the triumph of the French meant the opening 

of the floodgates of barbarism upon the English settlements 

from north to south. 

But in June, 1757, Pitt had taken charge at home: straight- 
way the American conflict became a national 
pitun 'power war » t ^ ie rea % vl ^ element of the great world- 
struggle into which the colonial quarrel had now 
merged. New men were chosen, strong in the confidence that 
they would be supported. Fleets, troops, supplies, money 
were promptly forthcoming. The original offensive plan was 
once more taken in hand, but in a fresh spirit. 

The year 1758 saw the tide of French successes stayed. 
Forbes, next to Wolfe the strongest of Pitt's men, 

1758 : the ' . 

English with masterly ability, forced his way across the 

victories. Alleghanies in July to find Fort Duquesne already 

evacuated. The harassed Virginia border, with Washington in 
command, now had rest. At the other extremity of the line 
Louisbourg fell to Amherst and Wolfe. In the centre, how- 
ever, the brilliant and beloved Lord Howe met his death in an 
assault on Ticonderoga (July), directed by his chief, the in- 
competent Abercomby. But in September Fort Frontenac 
was captured, and Oswego recovered ; with Ontario in British 
hands, Fort Niagara and the whole of Louisiana were cut off 



1740 — 1763-] The Capture of Quebec. 195 

from the St Lawrence, and a way opened for rear attack on 
Canada itself. The year closed with dismay and dissension in 
Quebec, with returning hope and fierce determination in New 
England. 

The end, indeed, was now near. British dockyards were 
busy all winter (1758-9) in fitting out a squadron 
for attack upon the heart of Canada itself, the preparation" S 
fortress of Quebec, now laid open by the capture 
of Louisbourg and the helplessness of the French navies. With 
expedition unheard of for a century, the fleet, with 9000 troops 
on board under General Wolfe, was ready for sea by the middle 
of February. The attack on Quebec from the river by this force 
was to be the main operation of the campaign 
of 1759. It was intended that Wolfe should be q™^ ^ 
supported at the point of attack by Amherst, 
from the south, driving the French before him down Lake 
Champlain, and by the flotilla from Lake Ontario, bringing 
Prideaux's corps from the far west. As it fell out, Wolfe was 
left to win his victory alone. Niagara was taken in July ; the 
troops were not ready to descend the St Lawrence until the 
need for them had passed. In August, Amherst found Ticon- 
deroga and Lake Champlain evacuated, but he was still only 
preparing to force a passage down the Richelieu when Quebec 
fell. 

Wolfe, after vain attempts to reduce the city by bombard- 
ment, and by flank attack from the east, moved 
his force up-stream across the fire of the fortress. sept b i7TO aken ' 
His position was becoming difficult : he was 
incapacitated by sickness, and winter was fast approaching. 
Word had reached him of a steep and narrow path leading 
directly up the face of the range of cliff crowned by the Plains 
of Abraham, the narrow plateau which stretches westwards 
from the city. Soon after midnight on the 14th of September 
boats laden with troops dropped down with the tide from the 
transports, others crossed from the southern shore; the path 

13—2 



196 Fall of Canada, 1760. [CH. V, 

— as being impracticable — was found unguarded. When the 
day broke, Wolfe had under him on the north bank 4,500 troops 
in all, of whom 3,250, forming the front line, were actually 
engaged with an equal force of the enemy under General 
Montcalm. The fighting speedily ended in the repulse and 
_. ,_ , flight of the French. Wolfe and Montcalm were 

Death of b 

Wolfe and of mortally wounded on the field. The French 
first evacuated the city and then their defensive 
lines to the east of it. On the 18th the citadel, on threat of 
assault capitulated, and Canada, in effect, was won. A thrill 
of profound relief passed over the colonies; to the New 
England men it was as the day of Barak or of Gideon. But 
the main French army still kept the field. The English in 
turn were, in the spring of 1760, besieged in 
real fails: Ca- Quebec, but the power of the sea once more 
nada Bntis . d ec icl e cl operations. A relieving fleet appeared 
in the river; Montreal was thereupon attacked by an over- 
whelming British and colonial force, converging from three 
sides, and surrendered unconditionally to Amherst (Sept. 8). 
It was urged that his terms were unduly hard : ' I am fully 
resolved,' answered the General, 'for the infamous part the 
troops of France have acted in exciting the savages to per- 
petrate the most horrid and unheard-of barbarities in the whole 
progress of this war, to manifest by this capitulation my 
detestation of such practices.' Under the articles of surrender 
all French officers, troops, sailors and civil officials were sent 
to France in English vessels, and Canada passed at once under 
English rule. 

The English in India. 

The French East India Company, whose real activity dates 

h from Colbert (1662), was, like its English rival, 

in India: 166a purely a trading corporation. Its chief centre 

~ 1740, was Pondicherry, built in 1675, and, like Madras, 

owned and governed as a French dependency. It lay about 



1740 — 1763-] The aims of Dupleix. 197 

100 miles south of Fort St George. In Bengal the French 
held Chandernagore, in the same manner as the English held 
Calcutta, and, on the West coast, Mahe, a port of much less 
importance. The Company possessed also the He de France 
and the He de Bourbon (Mauritius and Reunion), and claimed 
vague rights, derived from settlement, in Madagascar. The 
period of peace which followed the death of Louis XIV. 
(17 1 5) had aided the growth of the eastern trade, in which 
a strong mercantile marine was employed. The Factors of 
the French settlements were rigidly enjoined to follow the 
example of the English and Dutch in abstaining from inter- 
ference in the native politics of the peninsula. 

In 1 741 the control of French interests in the East was 
entrusted to a man of singular genius and Du leixat 
patriotic ambition. Dupleix had already spent Pondichen-y, 
twenty years in the service of the Company; I741 ' 
since 1730 he had been Governor of Chandernagore, which 
had attained a marked degree of prosperity under his com- 
mand. He was made Governor-General at Pondicherry, with 
supreme charge of the commercial, military and political ad- 
ministration of French affairs in India. The political con- 
dition of India had attracted his keen attention. 
In the dissolution of the Moghul empire now in 
progress he saw the unique opportunity of France. No one 
had grasped so clearly as Dupleix the defenceless position of 
the native states and the influence which European interven- 
tion, skilfully guided, might win amid the shifting sands of 
Indian intrigue. He believed that France, by securing a 
firm foothold in native politics, would easily monopolise the 
European commerce of India, and if need be expel her British 
competitors altogether. Dupleix's ambition, however, soared 
above mercantile ideas. He had conceived of a vast European 
empire in India, maintained by native aid, a source of wealth 
and prestige to the power that owned it. And it was his deter- 
mination that France should be first in the field. 



198 England and France in India. [CH. V. 

His policy was steadily shaped to this end. The adminis- 
tration and finances of the Company in India were reformed ; 
Pondicherry was fortified against land and sea attack : a native 
army, drilled by French officers, was raised. Dupleix took 
pains to conciliate native opinion, as the French have always 
known how to do; he acquired from Delhi an imperial title 
which placed him in a unique position, — a foreigner, yet a 
part of the great political system of India. But in 1743, 
the Directors in Paris, alarmed at his expenditure and at 
the coming war, ordered their Governor to retrench. When 
fighting began in Europe, Dupleix was almost ready. 

But he had overlooked one vital link in his chain. Events 

proved that he was right in believing that a 

point in his European power, pitting one native ruler against 

conceptions. anot h erj cou id become dominant in India. But 

he did not perceive that such a power must possess control of 

the sea. Reinforcements, for example, must be drawn from 

home, and military bases on the coast rendered secure from 

naval attack. But what Dupleix did not realise, Admiral 

La Bourdonnais, the other great Frenchman who appeared 

in the East at that time, fully understood. The two men 

had the same ultimate end in view — to restrict, if not to 

destroy, British interests in the peninsula. But, whilst the 

mind of Dupleix was fixed on a policy of native alliances — a 

land policy — La Bourdonnais knew that mas- 

na^ B ° Urd0n " tei 7 at sea was ttae P rmie necessity. England 
gained India because she was able to apply 
the methods of both. 

War in Europe was formally declared between Great 
The struggle Britain and France in 1744. It will be (as 
of France and i n the case of the American War) more true 
ind1aTi744— to tne actual facts to disregard the apparent 
1761 • break in continuity implied by the Peace of 

1748. The events of the period will then group themselves 
under the two heads of the conflict in the Carnatic and that 



1740 — 1763-] The struggle for tlie Carnatic. 199 

in Bengal. From 1756 onwards these overlap in point of time, 
but they remain generally distinct from each other. In the 
Carnatic the French occupy the foreground of the scene ; 
in Bengal they fill a subordinate part, and the actors in the 
drama are its native rulers and the British E. I. Company. 

In 1745 an English fleet appeared off Pondicherry. 
Uupleix, in alarm, appealed to the Nawab The Car 

of the Carnatic, the native sovereign of that natic, 1745— 
region, to forbid hostilities between European I74 ' 
settlements in his dominion. The English squadron then 
drew off. Next year La Bourdonnais reached Pondicherry . 
after compelling the weaker English fleet to retire from the 
coast, he attacked and took Madras (Sept. 1746). A ransom 
(^400,000) was agreed upon, but Dupleix, angry at not being 
consulted, refused to acknowledge the terms. The Governor 
of Fort St George and his Council were paraded in triumph 
at Pondicherry. The French Admiral, in indignation, with- 
drew his fleet and sailed for France, where the brave and 
sagacious servant of his country was sent to the Bastille. 
Meantime the Nawab, resenting the armed intervention of 
the French, demanded of Dupleix the surrender of Madras; 
attempted to seize it, and was defeated, to his astonishment, 
by a small French force (1747). Madras, however, was 
next year restored in exchange for Louisbourg by the Peace 
of 1748. 

The opportunity of establishing his influence in native 
politics, for which Dupleix had been carefully a TheCar . 
watching, now arrived. The Nizam of Hai- natic, 1748— 
darabad, the ruler of the Deccan as viceroy, I754 ' 
or Soubahdar, of the Moghul, and therefore over-lord of 
the Carnatic, died in 1748, leaving a disputed succession. 
Dupleix at once made agreement with one of the several 
claimants, the Governor of Madras taking the part of an- 
other. At the same time Dupleix was actively intriguing for 
the ejection of the reigning Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwur- 



200 Dupleix and the Nizam. [CH. V. 

ood-Deen, who had shown English sympathies, in favour of 
his own protege, Chunda Sahib. He succeeded in both pro- 
jects. Mozuffer Jung and Chunda Sahib were proclaimed 
Soubahdar and Nawab respectively, and their rivals slain 

Dupleix and ( x 748-9)- Dupleix seemed on the eve of 
the Nizam : realising his most sanguine hopes. He had 

ussy, 1750. organised an effective native force to support 
his French troops; he had defended Pondicherry against a 
serious British attack both by land and sea; native rulers 
respected his power and sought his alliance. The Nizam 
and the Nawab owed their thrones to him. The former 
appointed him governor of the possessions of the Moghul 
south of the river Krishna, the latter became a mere de- 
pendant of Pondicherry. It was even more significant that, 
for the security of the new Nizam against pretenders, a mixed 
French and Sepoy force was stationed at his capitals under the 
command of the most capable officer the French ever sent to 
India, the Marquis de Bussy (1751). Thus, in the Deccan 
and the Carnatic plain, sovereign authority was controlled by 
the French Governor-General. The methods by which Great 
Britain built up her power in India were first put into opera- 
tion by Dupleix. 

The English at Madras were gradually awakening to the 
fact that the old order of things was passing 
abando^non- away. They perceived that Europeans in India 
intervention, were no i on g er mere traders ; that, however un- 
willingly, the Company must be prepared to 
meet the French with their own weapons. Formally, England 
and France were at peace, but, as allies of rival native princes, 
they were drifting into hostilities. Dreading the effects of the 
unchecked influence of Dupleix in the Carnatic, the Governor 
of Madras lent direct aid to Mahomed Ally, son of the late 
Nawab. It was in the course of the struggle between the 

ciive at two European powers on behalf of their respective 

Arcot, 1751. claimants, that Clive appears in the field, taking 



174° — l 7^S-] Dupleix s recall. 201 

and defending with great skill and courage the fortress of 
Arcot, the capital of Chunda Sahib (autumn of 1751). 
Eventually Chunda Sahib was slain (1753). Dupleix, relying on 
Bussy, was planning new combinations, when he was suddenly 
recalled to France in Oct. 1754. 

Dupleix's aims were boldly conceived, and, however fan- 
tastic in the eyes of western observers, they were 
proved, within very few years, to be thoroughly Dupleix. 6 ° 
practicable. But, given the genius of the man, 
three things were needed to make his success possible : able 
assistance on the spot, whole-hearted support from home, 
and command of sea-communications. Of the first he had 
little or none; the second was persistently denied to him; 
the latter was always precarious. Dupleix was recalled be- 
cause the Directors at home were weary of a policy which 
caused much anxiety and brought no tangible profits; be- 
cause the ministry disregarded political successes which did 
not tell in the European struggle. Complaints passed from 
London to Paris : Dupleix was made a scapegoat, and be- 
came another victim of French indifference to 
great opportunity. On his return he was dis- I7 ^. ,sdeath ' 
graced and ruined ; and, ten years later, the 
greatest figure in the history of French expansion died 
forgotten. 

The departure of Dupleix led to a temporary agreement 
between Madras and Pondicherry. Mahomed Th Car 

Ally was accepted as Nawab, a definite success natic,i754-i76i: 
for England ; but Bussy, who had received the a y ' 
Northern Circars with a revenue of half-a-million sterling, for 
the support of the French auxiliaries, still remained at Haidara- 
bad. His position was rightly felt, both in London and in 
India, to be a serious menace to British security. The over- 
throw of French military power in the East now became a 
ruling object of English policy; the Seven Years' War provided 
the occasion. Lally was sent out from France, arriving in 



202 Expulsion of French from India. [CH. V. 

1758, with a fleet and the large force of 1,000 troops. Tactless, 
haughty, and guilty of wanton cruelties, this impulsive Irishman 
was a marked contrast to Dupleix. He imperilled the unique 
advantage of the dependence of the Nizam by recalling Bussy. 
The Circars, the province under French control, were thereupon 
promptly invaded by a force despatched by Clive from Bengal 
(Oct. 1758). Confians, Lally's officer, was routed, and Masuli- 
patam fell before assault in April, 1759. The Nizam, seeing 
the trend of events, transferred his alliance to the English, ceded 
to them Masulipatam, and dismissed the French corps. The 
power which the sagacity of Dupleix and Bussy had established 
in the Deccan thus fell to pieces. From the treaty of 1759 
dates that friendly relation between England and the Nizam 
which has with little interruption subsisted ever since. 

Lally failed equally to hold his own in the Carnatic. Fort 

St David, weak and ill-defended, had fallen to his 
of French ' attack soon after his arrival (June, 1758); Madras 
power in India, t ^ eQ stoo( i a s i e g e (1758 — 9), which however 

was raised on the appearance of an English fleet. 
Coote's victory at Wandewash (1760) drove Lally to seek the 
shelter of Pondicherry, which was then invested. Superiority 
at sea had gradually veered to the British side. The French 
garrison, cut off from reinforcements and supplies, was com- 
pelled to surrender at discretion (Jan., 1761). Mahd was cap- 
tured a month later: Chandernagore had already fallen to 
Clive. The military power of France in India now ceased to 
exist. Once more the French Government sacrificed a servant 
whose failure was mainly due to its own supineness. On his 
return Lally was executed. 

Events had taken place in Bengal which had strengthened 

the determination of the Company and of Pitt to 
in'BlJjai VentS ex P el the French from India. 

In 1756 the succession to the sovereignty of 
Bengal passed to the Nawab Surajah-ood-Dowlah. He was a 
young man — hardly nineteen years of age — whose ungovernable 



174 — 1 7^3-] The Black Hole of Calcutta. 203 

temper brought him speedily into conflict with the English to 
his own destruction. Calcutta was now a prosperous town 
administered on English methods and defended by an English 
garrison. It was further secured by the fact that it was ac- 
cessible to ocean-going ships. The French owned in the same 
way the town of Chandernagore, twenty-four miles above 
Calcutta, and the Dutch had a similar settlement at Chinsurah, 
immediately adjoining the French boundary. 

Within a few weeks of his accession the Nawab made 
demand for the surrender of a relative who had 
claimed English protection at Fort William. The t akMCafc^tte. 
Council demurred. But the fortifications of 
Calcutta were weak, and the garrison small. The Nawab had 
no difficulty in occupying the town (June, 1756). Such English 
subjects as had not fled were, by orders of an 
officer of the Nawab, thrust into the military Ho ^ h . e Black 
jail-room, and, amid unspeakable horrors, out of 
146 prisoners 123 died before morning. 

Clive had just reached Madras from England. He was 
already recognized as the man of energy and 
resource who could be relied on in grave emer- &^l\ '[!.„ 
gency. With ships and troops he sailed for 
Bengal. The young Nawab was promptly brought to under- 
stand the nature of the race with whom he had to reckon. 
Calcutta was easily re-captured. Ample amends were then 
made in money, and the privileges of the English in Bengal 
were confirmed in detail. This took place early in 1757: about 
the same time news arrived of the declaration He takes 
of war between England and France in Europe. go^M™*!, 
Clive, now on terms of treaty with the Nawab, *757- 
proceeded to attack the French in Chandernagore. But Surajah- 
ood-Dowlah, resenting this independent action and miscalcu- 
lating the relative strength of the two powers, took the French 
side. Chandernagore, vigorously attacked, fell in March. The 
Council of Calcutta, borrowing Dupleix's policy, determined to 



204 The English power in Bengal. [ch. V. 

displace the hostile Nawab by a prince upon whom they could 
rely. Mir Jaffier, an officer of position, was fixed upon : and 
around him gathered a veritable network of intrigue. But the 
army of Surajah-ood-Dowlah was in the field, and in June was 
encamped at Plassey, 70 miles north of Calcutta. Clive, by a 
memorable night march, on the 22nd of that month, led his 
force of 1,000 European and 2,000 native troops with eight 
small field-pieces, within striking distance of the enemy, fifty 

thousand strong, with fifty guns. Next day 
junlf/1757! Plassey was won, with little slaughter on either 

side, but with complete demoralisation of the 
native force and of its ruler. Mir Jaffier was now proclaimed 

Nawab of Bengal, Orissa and Behar at Moor- 
mfdeNawab. shedabad, the capital of the province. Immense 

treasure poured in upon the Company, its army 
and officials, the price paid by the successful usurper. The 
Company became the landowners of a large territory sur- 
rounding Calcutta. But the deposition and death of Surajah- 
ood-Dowlah led the imperial Prince at Delhi, afterwards the 
Moghul, to claim Bengal in his own right. Clive scattered the 
ill-organised force by which the demand was supported (1758), 
thereby confirming the prestige of British arms in Northern 
India. The success of his operations against the Circars, as 
part of the struggle against Lally, has been mentioned. Clive 
ciiv Gover- meanwn il e had been appointed Governor of all 
nor of Bengal, English settlements and factories in Bengal in 
175 ' 1758. In 1760 he sailed for England. 

Great Britain had now gained in Bengal a footing similar 
Th "f n to tnat P ossesse d by her in the Carnatic. These 
of the Com- great and wealthy provinces were ruled by native 
panym enga . ponces w h were the nominees of the English, 
to be removed without scruple if they entered upon embarrassing 
courses. But no attempt was yet made to interfere with their 
methods of internal government. The administration of the 
Company's settlements, since its origin in Surat, was still 



1740 — 17^3-1 England and India at the Peace, 1763. 205 

that of a business establishment. A dazzling vista of power 
and wealth was suddenly revealed to a body which had no 
organisation or trained intelligence fit to cope with the re- 
sponsibilities involved. Hence two results : the difficulties 
confusion between commercial, civil and military 
authority, giving rise to disputes and scandals which long 
hampered the administration of affairs in India and at home ; 
and the gross demoralisation which overtook the Company's 
service in Bengal. Clive was himself guilty of an act of plain 
forgery in the discreditable intrigues that resulted in the accession 
of Mir Jaffier in 1757 ; and he lent the sanction 
of his own example to the personal rapacity of fficiais£ t,0n ° 
the Councillors at Calcutta. No doubt, as Clive 
said, the temptations put in the way of Europeans of influence 
in India at that time 'were such as flesh and blood could not 
be expected to withstand.' The beginnings of British rule in 
Bengal are an unpleasant study for those who take a well- 
founded pride in the integrity of modern Anglo-Indian ad- 
ministration. 

The second great achievement of the period we have been 
considering was thus accomplished. The foun- . . 
dations of the territorial power of England in England at the 
India were laid in the victories of Clive at eace ' ' 
Plassey and of Eyre Coote in the Carnatic. Beginning as a 
struggle for existence against the ambitions of Dupleix the 
conflict had ended within ten years in the conversion of a 
London trading Company into an anomalous but effective 
paramount power in two of the richest and most densely 
peopled regions of India. Military skill, the vigorous support 
of Pitt, and the decisive control of the sea, were the three chief 
causes of English success. Great as were the results so far 
secured, they were more significant still as indicating the lines 
upon which far greater things were yet to be won. 



206 The Naval War: France and Spain. [CH. V. 

The victories in America and in India were due, in their 
rapidity and their completeness, to the command 
war, e i 75 ^-6i. °f tne sea > which was secured once for all by the 
destruction of the French fleets in 1759. The 
triumphs of Boscawen in the Straits of Gibraltar (Aug.) and of 
Hawke off Quiberon (Nov.) set free the English navy for 
operations against the outlying colonies of France, and effectu- 
ally stopped the relief of her struggling army in the Carnatic. 
The capture of every maritime possession of the enemy, and, 
what was of no less importance, the annihilation of her sea- 
borne trade, was now only a question of time. Within little 
more than two years every French island in the West Indies, 
except San Domingo, had fallen. No support could reach 
Quebec or Montreal. In India she had not a square yard of 
territory left. Goree and the Senegal had been captured, and 
with them France had lost all share in the West African slave- 
trade. 

Spain, with incredible folly, chose this moment for taking 
the losing side. Too late to help France, she 

France 1761 S was * n ^ me to " Dear t ^ ie brunt of her misfortunes. 

Pitt had foreseen this alliance in the summer of 
1 761. In September he resigned because his proposals for an 

offensive policy were rejected by the Cabinet, 
nation* x^'f" But, ^ tt once out °^ orr ^ ce ) Spain, by open 

preparations and by avowal of the French treaty, 
promptly proved his sagacity. She reaped nothing but humi- 
liation from her belated interference. Her weak and ill- 
equipped fleets — 50 sail in all — were helpless before the 
English navy of 120 vessels with their crews of 70,000 hardened 
and confident seamen. Havannah was captured in 1762, and 
with it the communications of Spain with her western empire 
were destroyed. Manila and the Philippines were attacked 
from India, and when they fell the East Indies also were closed 
to Spain. Immense treasure was, as an inevitable consequence, 
taken on the high seas. Though Pitt was no longer in power, 



1740 — 1763O The Treaty of Paris. 207 

his spirit still animated the Services, and the victories were 
rightly put to his credit by public opinion. It was difficult to 
fix a limit to tne possible successes of the English fleets. 

But George II. had now been succeeded by a young 
monarch who purposed to govern as well as 
reign. Pitt was too strong, too popular, too in- George 11 1. 
dependent of royal favour, to suit George III. 
The intrigue and corruption by which the new King secured 
personal control of affairs are told in the general history of this 
period. It is enough to say of them here that by their means 
Pitt was overthrown, his plans discarded, and the full fruit of 
his conquests lost to his country. As in 17 13, peace was 
sought as a move in a great party game, and to discredit a 
prominent leader. An agreement between England and the 
allied Powers was reached at the end of 1762. 
By the provisions of the Treaty of Paris (Feb. J^lZ]^. 
1763) — i. France yielded to England all territory 
held or claimed by her on the continent of N. America, lying 
east of the Mississippi, except the city of New Orleans. She 
retained certain privileges of fishery on the Newfoundland 
coasts. In the W. Indies, England restored her three finest 
conquests, S. Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe, retaining 
only the less important islands of Tobago, St Vincent and 
Dominica. In India, France recovered her territorial posses- 
sions, but merely as trading-posts. Her political career in the 
East was, for the time, formally renounced. In W. Africa, by 
ill-advised compromise, Goree was handed back by England 
who kept the Senegal river and its forts. — ii. Spain surrendered 
Florida, which included all her territory east of the Missis- 
sippi : but she regained Cuba and the Philippines, and 
France ceded to her, in compensation for her losses, all her 
claims to America west of the Mississippi. The whole of the 
settled and more accessible area of the great Continent thus 
fell to England ; whilst the great unknown West lay dormant 
in the hands of Spain until the time should come when 



208 General results of the War. [CH. V. 

men of English race should be ready to appropriate that 
also. 

The gain to England in territory, in treasure and prizes 

_ at sea, and in prestige, were greater than in any 

results of the previous war. India and America were now 

destined to be English and not French. The 

sea power and the maritime trade of the world were avowedly 

in English hands. To Great Britain continental politics and 

interests ceased to be of primary concern. Pitt had definitely 

established the insular and the extra-European character of 

British power. Henceforth the face of England was to the 

ocean ; but her back was turned to the Continent of Europe. 



20Q 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LOSS OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 

1764— 1783. 

The conduct and issue of the late war had imbued the 
nation with a proud sense of power and, insen- 
sibly, with a stronger view of sovereignty over the American 

the colonies. Yet it had been foretold that Colonies in 

1763. 
the expulsion of the French from Canada would 

prove a doubtful boon to Great Britain. Foreign observers, 
noting the large measure of independence enjoyed by the 
colonies and their increasing population and wealth, argued 
that, once the Canadian danger removed, the Americans would 
awaken to the fact that England was no longer necessary to 
their security. It was even discussed in England in 1763 
whether it might not be politic to restore Quebec to France in 
exchange for Guadeloupe. It seemed, however, 
wholly needless to scheme for the preservation i yJity? Can 
of American loyalty in the years that saw the 
victories of Louisbourg and Quebec. The endeared memories 
of Lord Howe and Wolfe, Pitt's outspoken pride in the Empire, 
the accession of the 'true Briton,' George III., the sense of 
final relief from the conflict of a century, the boundless possi- 
bilities of the future, all contributed in the colonies to a generous 
sense of gratitude and content. 

Moreover, the colonies were well aware that, as regards 
political privileges, they held a unique position. The olitical 
Not the mother country, not any European state, privileges of 
enjoyed so full a measure of self-government, the Coloni8ts - 
w. e. 14 



210 Ttie American Colonies, 1763. [CH. VI. 

institutions so elastic, freedom of enterprise, of thought, and of 
religion, so unfettered. That 'equality of opportunity' which is 
the most sincere mark of democracy was, in the middle of the 
1 8th century, to be found nowhere outside the limits of an 
English colony. In New England pre-eminently, but in only 
less degree in the other colonies, the affairs of the township 
and parish, of churches, and of the colony itself were managed 
'by the people for the people.' The royal Governor exercised, 
outside matters of trade and defence, little or no control on 
policy. Internal revenue was wholly in the hands of the 
Assembly, in which sat no place-men or royal pensioners, who, 
in the British Parliament, often nullified public opinion. The 
franchise was broad, the Press free, education cheap or 
actually costless. Much that Englishmen at home had to wait 
for until the 19th century was well advanced had been the 
privilege of the colonists for a hundred years. 

The population of the thirteen colonies, in 1763, was esti- 
mated at more than a million and a half: this 

Population. 

reached nearly 2,000,000 by 1776. Of this total 
New England claimed one-third ; the fact that Boston, its one 
important town, contained barely 19,000 people, shows the 
broad distribution of its inhabitants over the soil. In the 
middle colonies, New York City had a mixed population of 
only 10,000; Philadelphia, the thriving capital of the most 
promising of all the colonies, twice as many. Virginia, out of 
200,000 inhabitants, counted only 70,000 whites. Speaking 
generally, destitution was unknown, there was work for all ; and 
if few great fortunes existed, the small farmer and artisan, 
intelligent and self-respecting, enjoyed a degree of comfort un- 
known in Europe until our own times. The prosperity of the 
American colonies was a matter of envy to all European 
observers. 

The Peace of Paris left England saddled with a debt of 
140 millions, a large proportion of which had been incurred in 
relieving America of its enemies and in assuring her future 



1764 — 1 7^3-] The Policy of Grenville. 211 

progress. National debts were less familiar then than now, and 
were more alarming in proportion. George Gren- 
ville, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, pro- burdens of the 
ceeded faithfully to review the position. First of ™Q re ™^ s 
all, debt had to be met, and taxation was, and 
threatened for some years to continue, abnormally high. Now 
the national wealth, in the days before the sudden growth of 
manufacture, could only be seriously increased by extending 
foreign and colonial trade. Grenville then reflected on the laxity 
of the application of the Navigation Laws, particularly in those 
colonies which had just been so signally benefited by the war. 
Next, he took account of the certainty that France would 
attempt to recover the ground lost in America. In that event 
British arms would be called upon again to undertake the 
defence which provincial jealousies prevented the colonies 
from providing for themselves. Now Pitt had aroused a new 
feeling for the Empire, and Empire, with Grenville, meant joint 
responsibilities. If armaments were necessary for colonial 
defence, America might fairly be charged with The three 
some part of the cost. Grenville, therefore, aims of his 
aimed at three things: (1) to stiffen the opera- po,cy ' 174, 
tion of the Navigation Acts in the colonies, and to suppress 
smuggling : (2) to raise a standing army for America : (3) to 
impose taxation on the colonies towards its cost. The 
Americans were undoubtedly prosperous, and apparently loyal. 
It occurred to no one in this country that Grenville's policy 
would meet with serious opposition. 

The conflict with the colonies now preparing, which was to 
end in separation, may be divided into three stages : the first, 
ending in 1766, the second, in 1774, the third, with the 
Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

Grenville began (1764) with measures for enforcing the Acts 
of Trade. Orders were issued to Governors to The Ameri _ 
repress illicit trading and customs officials were can dispute : 

iii- r t r j 1 first stage, 

supported by ships of war. It was found that, i 7 6 4 — 1766. 

14 — 2 



212 The Stamp Act, 1765. [CH. VI. 

though by law no tea other than that drawn from England 
could be used in the colonies, yet, of \\ million lbs. 
yearly consumed, not more than one-tenth was shipped 
from home. The profitable, but illegal, import of sugar 
and other West Indian produce from French and 
ministration Spanish islands was now (1764) expressly for- 
tionAc N ts. viga " bidden by statute. On the same occasion Gren- 
ville introduced a resolution that, 'for the further 
defraying the expense of protecting the colonies, it may be 
proper to charge certain stamp duties in the said colonies.' 
The purpose of the impost was duly laid before the agents 
of the colonies in London, who were instructed to take the 
opinion of their Assemblies. These, without exception, protested 
against the proposal, though they offered no alternative plan of 
raising the money. In March 1765 the Stamp 
A ™j 5** mp Act was passed, with little interest and less dis- 
cussion. But in America the measure was 
greeted with an outburst of disorder, and the Act became at 
once a dead letter. 

A change of ministry now followed. Rockingham, the 
new premier, at the urgent request of the mer- 
gg S re P eal « cantile interests, already suffering from a disturb- 
ance of American credit and trade, repealed the 
Act (1766); but, to induce Parliament and the King to 
yield so far, the Minister carried, along with the repeal, a 
Declaratory Act, which asserted the undoubted right of 
Parliament to make laws binding the colonies ' in all cases 
whatsoever.' This, however, passed unnoticed in America in 
the enthusiasm with which the withdrawal of the Stamp 
Duties was received. It seemed that in spite of the deep 
irritation caused in all classes in England by the news of the 
abuse, menaces and violence, with which the Act had been 
met, that the good feeling of 1763 had been restored. It was 
noticed, however, with concern, that the colonists had begun 
to quote English precedents, to talk of Ship-money, and to 



1764 — 1783O The Customs Duties, 1767. 213 

adopt the anti-excise cry of 1733 in the watchword 'Liberty, 
Property, and No Stamps.' 

The fall of the Rockingham cabinet made way for the last 
Ministry of William Pitt (1 766). It was a strange 

, , _, J_ ' , . , , - ,{~ The second 

irony that made Chatham — the idol 01 the stage: Towns- 
colonists, the statesman who had publicly ' rejoiced ^ d J n s d * h * 
that America had resisted' — the head of the 
Government destined to revive, past hope of remedy, the conflict 
which he had so bitterly denounced. It was his lieutenant, Charles 
Townshend, who, when his chief lay incapacitated by illness, 
introduced in May 1767 measures for raising Crown revenue in 
America, by duties on 'tea, glass, lead, paper, and painters' 
colours.' The proceeds, estimated at ^40,000, were destined 
to pay the salaries of Governors and Judges. Other Bills 
suspended the New York Assembly, for resisting instructions 
concerning the quartering of troops, and still further strength- 
ened the Customs staff. It is difficult for us, as it was for the 
colonists, to understand how a cabinet containing several strong 
opponents of the Stamp Act could assent to such 
a policy. The dismay of the more sober colonists re newed tent 
was quickly followed in New England by renewed 
agitation, by non-importation agreements, by resolutions calling 
afresh for a repealing Act, by violent usage of Crown officials. 
The Massachusetts Assembly, dissolved by the Governor, 
promptly met as a 'Convention.' Troops to support royal 
authority were despatched in 1768 to Boston, and an ugly 
temper was rising on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Meantime Townshend had died (Sept. 1767) without seeing* 
the effects of his measures. He was succeeded _. „. 

The King 

by Lord North. Chatham and those who thought directs affairs, 
with him left the cabinet one by one; by the end I? ' 
of 1768 the King was virtually the chief of his Ministry. To 
George III. belongs the responsibility of the disastrous policy 
which ensued. 

Once more the mercantile community at home intervened. 



214 Coercion of New England, 1774. [CH. VI. 

The colonial trade, which, according to Chatham, brought to 

English men of business a profit of at least two 
P ropK™77o. millions' a year, was utterly disorganised. The 

enemies of England were watching events : 
France was quietly preparing. 

In 1770 Lord North attempted a compromise. Towns- 
hend's duties were withdrawn, with the exception of that on 
tea ; a step which showed how ill the Ministry understood the 
state of opinion in America. The Government wished to 
maintain the principle; and it was exactly the principle that 
violence in '^e c °l ornsts vehemently rejected. Conflict, with 
New England, loss of life, had already occurred between the 

soldiery and a Boston mob. A disposition on 
the part of the more responsible colonists in New England (to 
which disorder had mainly been confined) to discourage agi- 
tation, was thwarted by the efforts of a disputatious class of 
lawyers, ministers, and ruined traders. A vessel of the navy 
engaged in watching the harbours of Rhode Island was boarded 
by the inveterate smugglers of that colony and burnt (1772). 
Cargoes of tea were thrown into Boston harbour. No one 
was punished for either offence. Parliament was not un- 
reasonably stirred by such marks of anarchy. Public opinion 
was more deeply moved by the exposure of Franklin, the 
capable Agent of several of the colonies in London. He had, 
in a discreditable way, become possessed of, and had caused 
to be made known, certain private letters of Hutchinson, 
the Governor of Massachusetts. 

The third stage in the conflict was now reached. The 

King and the Ministry, with, it must be said, the 
stage 6 ; coercive general support of the country, determined to 
measures, abandon conciliation for repression. In 1774 

x 774 — I 775- . 

Lord North proposed three measures of coercion. 
By the Boston Port Act the harbour of Boston was closed to 
trade inwards and outwards. The Charter of Massachusetts 
was in part revoked. Crown officials of the same colony were in 



1764 — L7&3-] The Congress 0/177$. 215 

specified cases removed from the jurisdiction of colonial courts of 
law. These Bills, strenuously opposed by Burke and Chatham, 
were promptly agreed to, in the conviction that Massachusetts — 
the head and front of the offending colonies — would be ' brought 
to its senses.' The actual result was that on the 
appeal of Virginia and Massachusetts a general congressof 
Congress of delegates from all the colonies (ex- the Colonies . 
cepting Georgia) met at Philadelphia on Sept. 5, 
1774. Among its members was George Washington, but the 
lead was taken by men of a different stamp, the demagogue 
Samuel Adams of Boston, and the charlatan Patrick Henry 
of Virginia. Congress, whilst claiming exclusive rights of 
Assemblies over taxation, still admitted the power of Par- 
liament to regulate trade. After condemning the legislation 
of the past ten years, it supported Massachusetts in resistance 
to recent coercive measures, but finished by a loyal address 
to the Crown. Washington could still write from Congress, with 
full conviction, 'I am well satisfied that no such thing as 
independence is desired by any thinking man in all North 
America.' Yet Massachusetts had now suspended all legal 
forms of executive government and was acting as an indepen- 
dent State : and before Congress separated she had (Oct. 1774) 
called out her militia. In response to the declarations of 
Congress, Parliament extended the Boston Port Act to nine 
colonies. Before Congress met again in 1775 The Second 
war had begun in the skirmish of Lexington Congress, 1775. 
(February). Still Congress despatched the 'Olive Branch' 
petition to the King, asking for a return to the mutual relation 
as it stood in 1763. It was rejected; the temper of the King 
and of the country admitted of nothing short of submission 
on the part of the colonies. On the other hand, Congress voted 
a 'continental,' or united colonial, army, with Washington in 
command, and privateers were commissioned. In April 1776 
a final blow at the English connection was struck, when 
Congress, repudiating for the first time on behalf of America 



216 The Declaration of Independence, 1776. [CH. VI. 

the whole fabric of the Navigation Acts, declared the trade of 

„ . . the colonies open to all the world, ' not subject 

authority re- to the King of Great Britain.' But the two 

pudmted, 1776. coun tries had been already for twelve months in 

a state of war. The colonies, now secretly encouraged by 

France, followed Massachusetts in throwing off the last ties 

of British allegiance. The proprietary governments, as in 

Pennsylvania, were abolished. Planter influence in the South, 

mainly loyalist, went down before the wave of patriot feeling. 

Still, Congress worked by very small majorities. In New 

York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, British sympathies 

were exceedingly strong to the last. But on July 4, 1776, 

was signed and published (New York alone 

pendence abstaining), the Declaration of Independence 

declared, b y w hich the Empire lost its chief colonial 

July 4, 1776. . * . v 

inheritance. 

Let us shortly review the causes which had led to so 

decisive and so rapid a change in the relation of 

disruption: the mother country to her colonies during the 

General thirteen vears that had elapsed since the Peace 

of 1 763. First, we may bring together the broader 

underlying conditions which made the revolution possible, 

and which will have been suggested by the story of the 

colonies already told. 

1. The chief of these lay in the origin and history of the 
colonies themselves. The colonists were, as we have seen, 
above all things Englishmen, with the political tenacity and 
individual reliance of their race. In fighting George III., 
New England at least felt itself once more resisting the 
tyranny of the Stuarts. Moreover, thanks to their long training 
in self-government in Church and State, and to their steady 
prosperity, the colonial communities were, politically, far more 
intelligent and advanced than the mother country, and their 
leaders were conscious of it. 

2. Though the colonists had been left to themselves in 



causes. 



1764 — 1783.] The Causes of Disruption. 217 

matters of government, their industries had been closely con- 
trolled by the Navigation Acts. Even if at certain periods 
English statesmen had winked at the evasion of the regulations as 
"to trade, colonial manufacture had always been strictly repressed. 

3. The Navigation Laws, however, the colonists regarded 
as the price they paid for protection against foreign enemies : 
and the French in Canada had been a standing reminder that 
they could not dispense with the strong arm of the mother 
country. When Canada had finally passed into English hands 
this powerful motive to loyalty no longer operated. 

4. A fourth deep-seated source of misunderstanding lay 
in the gross ignorance of Englishmen of all classes — from the 
King, his Ministers and civil servants downwards — concerning 
colonial life and thought. With lack of knowledge went, in 
governing circles, the absence of any reasoned policy, such 
as, however defective it might be .in itself, marked the relation 
of France and Spain to their dependencies. Whilst the co- 
lonies were acquiring and tenaciously maintaining rights 
amounting to practical independence, the English Government 
was, in colonial affairs, living as it were from hand to mouth, 
without accepted principles, expert advice, or properly organ- 
ised administration. The powerful trading interest, no doubt, 
concerned itself with America, but only as traders : and of 
other instructed public opinion on the colonies there was 
little or none. 

Estimating, next, the immediate causes which led to the 
rupture, we see that in the three essentials of 
a colonial policy — sympathy, equity, and most b - immediate 
clear-sighted purpose — the English method of 
handling the problem of American relations was conspicuously 
lacking. 

1. The right of taxation, claimed by Grenville, disputed by 
Chatham, and rejected by the colonies, may have been legal ; 
but it was clearly contrary to the ingrained political conviction 
of Englishmen. So soon as the colonists made it manifest that 



218 Causes of Disruption. [CH. VI. 

they viewed it from their own standpoint as Englishmen, it was 
necessary to abandon the claim. In the undetermined rela- 
tions of Parliament to the colonies it may have been perfectly 
natural to propose taxation, but the true question for statesmen 
was whether, in the common interest of the Empire, such a 
policy was expedient. The question thus stated was answered 
unmistakeably, not only by the tenacity of American resistance, 
but by the paltry product of the taxes — a yearly sum of 
^40,000 in all, reduced by Lord North to ^15,000. 

2. By American lawyers the more subtle question was 
gradually raised : Had Parliament the right to legislate, on any 
subject, for Englishmen who were not represented in it? 
Though warmly disputed in New England, this inherent right 
of Parliament was defended by no one more energetically than 
Chatham, and was deliberately admitted by Congress as late as 
1775. At the same time, during the dispute, this power of 
legislation was always rejected in practice whenever it conflicted 
with colonial opinion. In England it was undoubtedly felt 
that America had no honest intention of accepting the 
supremacy of Parliament. 

3. The third cause is found in the renewed enforcement 
of the Navigation Laws and the prohibition of smuggling. 
This change was due, not only to Grenville and Townshend, 
but to the pressure of mercantile opinion, which urged the loss 
to British industry if the Acts became a dead letter. The 
injury to Boston and Rhode Island caused by interference 
with the West Indian trade, and the friction involved in the 
searching of vessels and seamen, brought home the grievance 
to a wide and important class of colonists. The destruction 
of the 'Gaspee' in 1772 by the men of Rhode Island, the 
frequent and unpunished outrages on Customs officials, well 
illustrate the feeling which was directed as much against the 
methods of carrying out the Acts as against the restrictions 
themselves. 

4. The proposal to establish a standing army in America 



1764 — 17^3*] Causes of Disruption. 219 

and the actual landing of troops at Boston (1768) were keenly 
resented. To Puritan and Quaker the phrase ' standing army ' 
had an evil sound ; to all classes of colonists it was distasteful, 
if America were expected to pay the cost. In the late war, 
British officers, from Braddock downwards, had, with a few 
marked exceptions, made themselves unpopular by their con- 
duct and pretensions. Royal garrisons, it was felt, would prove 
harmful to colonial simplicity and, in case of conflict with 
Governors, possibly dangerous. The despatch of troops to 
Boston under Gage produced bad feeling; and the right of 
Ministers to land armed forces, and of Parliament to pass 
quartering Acts, was disputed. 

5. The mischief was effectually completed by the coercive 
legislation of Lord North in 1774. Such Acts, as Burke and 
Chatham contended, rendered conciliation impossible, and were 
only intelligible as an intentional prelude to war. 

6. This suggests the supreme cause of rupture : the utter 
lack of consistent policy from 1767 onwards. There might be 
arguments for a system of colonial taxation as an effective 
part of a scheme of Imperial defence, but to imperil the 
Empire for ^40,000 a year was not statesmanship. To 
confess Townshend's finance to be mistaken, and yet to 
retain its most irritating feature — the tea-duty, worth at most 
^20,000 a year — was preposterous. Nor was it kingly in 
George III. to treat a rebuff in policy as a personal affront; 
whilst it was the silliest bravado to threaten coercion without 
either the intention, or the power, of exerting force enough to 
carry it through. America might have been retained to the 
Empire on the basis of frank cooperation : it might have been 
kept in subjection by overwhelming strength coupled with 
skilful diplomacy. It was irretrievably lost, before the war 
broke out, by a policy, if it can be called a policy, which was 
at once aimless, weak and stupid. 

Meantime the dispute had become a war. Two stages in 
the military struggle must be noted. During the first period 



220 Character of the War. [CH. VI. 

England and the colonies stand face to face alone : in the 

Th a • second France and Spain have joined America, 

can war: two intending 'to avenge their respective injuries 

main divisions. ^ ^ ^ ^ end tQ ^ tyrann i cal ernp i re 

which England has usurped and claims to maintain upon the 
ocean.' The American revolt, it must be clearly understood, 
was to these two Powers nothing more than an opportunity 
for undoing the results of the Seven Years' War. Into this 
conflict, chiefly fought out by the European parties to it 
upon the sea, Holland allowed herself to be 

char S a ct°e U r ble forced "* J 7 8a The war therefore had a 
double character. On one side it was a civil 
war, a war of repression, in which little could be won even 
by the most conspicuous success, and which could inspire 
neither ministers, nor people, nor commanders in the field with 
true patriotic enthusiasm. On the other side it was one more 
act in the European struggle for sea-dominion. The colonial 
and the foreign wars merged together, and the actual event 
(Yorktown, 1781) by which Independence was won was due, 
not to American valour, but to French arms on land and sea. 
But, France apart, England could hardly have triumphed 
in any event. British troops, supported by 
bound'tofaii. adequate fleets, could no doubt have held all 
important points along the coast; in the ex- 
treme south two colonies might have been rallied to the 
English side. But the war proved, at an early stage and 
conclusively, that the interior could not be recovered, that 
New England was lost, that the submission of America, if 
yielded at all, could be maintained only by an intolerable drain 
upon the resources of the mother country. 

The causes of British failure lay partly in the nature 

• Reasons for of the problem itself: a hostile population, 

fafiure"*^ lar 8 e m numbers, sturdy, self-reliant, used to 

a. The inha- hardships and to irregular warfare ; a country 

bitants and the ., . , . - , , , . 

country; unfamiliar to the invader, marked by great 



1764 — 1783-] Reasons for British Failure. 221 

distances, without military roads, with precarious transport and 
supplies; a field of operations far from the only effective 
base, viz. England, and, above all, dependent upon naval 
communications, always uncertain, and, after 1777, threatened 
by an enemy of nearly equal power at sea. The conquest of 
America, difficult in any case, became impossible when once 
British control of the Atlantic was imperilled. 

Further, political causes affected military efficiency. Since 
Pitt's dismissal in 1761, neglect and corruption 
had marked the administration of the Services, *' j jP'^lf 111 

' organisation ; 

which in 1776 were the prey of unblushing 
jobbery. The War Department and the Admiralty were under 
the control of Lords Germain and Sandwich, men without 
principle or intelligence, and, as creatures of the King, proof 
against national discontent. Hence supplies and reinforce- 
ments were deficient, subordinate officers were ill-chosen, and 
the generals lacked confidence in their chiefs at home. Rodney 
and Howe were supplied with fleets inferior in numbers, arma- 
ment and speed to those of the French, to face the heaviest 
task that has perhaps ever befallen the British navy. 

The Loyalists, often heroic and devoted, were alienated 
by wanton plundering by the troops, or by the 
indifference of their officers. The goodwill of of loyaiAmeri- 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina can ee ine ' 
could not survive the actual experience of English military 
occupation, which was further rendered odious by the presence 
of German mercenaries and the enlistment of Indians. 

The British were opposed by Washington, the centre of 
colonial resistance, as George III. was the d thegenius 
centre of British repression. The one truly of Wasning- 
noble figure in the whole war is the great 
American leader, fighting on behalf of his country against 
heart-breaking difficulties in Congress, in the Assemblies, and 
in the army itself. 

A state of war, although unacknowledged as yet on either 



222 The Military operations. [ch. VI. 

side, existed in America from the day when the Assembly of 

First stage Massachusetts voted the enrolment of her militia 

of the war: (Oct. 1 7 74). Actual hostilities began in April 

Evacuation of 1775 ^h tne skirmish at Lexington; the 

Boston, 1776; credit of the day rested ^ the colonial 

troops, who had shown that they could cope with British 
regulars in the field. The success of Howe on Breed's Hill 
(Bunker's Hill, June, 1775) st iH left him shut up in Boston, 
in front of which Washington was now in command. The 
British, who could barely find supplies, destroyed in the winter 
two unprotected harbours to the general indignation. Howe 
was, in March 1776, forced by Washington to evacuate 
Boston ; and with his withdrawal the attack on New England 
ended. 

The other operation of the first winter of the war was an 
attempt by Congress to bring Canada into line with the re- 
volted colonies. It was, however, a complete failure, notwith- 
standing a temporary occupation of Montreal by the American 
general, Montgomery. Quebec resisted ; the Catholic Church, 
the traders, the peasantry and the Indians preferred English 
rule. The American force fell back upon the Hudson amid 
general disaster. 

Boston being now secure, New York became the American 

headquarters. In July 1776 a large British fleet, 
in the Middle conveying in all some 24,000 troops, arrived off 
colonies, the Hudson. Washington was now compelled 

by superior force to abandon New York, and 
to retreat across New Jersey upon Philadelphia. New York 
city now became, and remained for the rest of the war, the 
headquarters of the British, under Sir Henry Clinton. The 
' middle ' colonies, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
which always contained a strong loyalist element, formed the 
seat of war. Early in 1777 Washington made his way back 
towards the Hudson with a small, ill-equipped force; gaining 
support as he advanced as a result of the senseless depredations 



1764 — 17^3'J The French Alliance. 223 

committed by the British upon friend and enemy alike. 
But now the sea-power began to tell. Clinton, with as yet no 
hostile squadron to fear, occupied the fine harbours of Rhode 
Island; he then detached (Sept. 1777) a fleet, with General 
Howe and 18,000 troops on board, to occupy Philadelphia. 
Washington, falling back again to oppose the movement, was 
defeated at Brandywine. He complained bitterly of the ill- 
will to the patriot cause of the Quaker population. The 
British position, strong as it seemed, thus rested so far upon 
the sea; an attempt to sever New England from the less 
hostile colonies to the west and south, by occupying the 
Hudson in force from the Canadian border, was meanwhile 
being made (July, 1777). In that month General Burgoyne 
descended from Lake Champlain; he was attacked on the flank 
from New Hampshire, at Bennington, and finding his advance 
cut off at Saratoga, capitulated with only 3500 
effective troops (Oct. 1777) to a force of 14,000 oft^irw^ 8 ' 
provincial soldiery born to forest warfare. It 
was evident that English occupation of territory at a distance 
from the sea-base was likely to prove a very serious problem. 

The strictly colonial war, as distinguished from the wider 
conflict which developed from it, closes in the 
winter of 1777 — 1778, with the British in pos- first division 
session of the three isolated positions of Rhode 
Island, New York, and Philadelphia, dependent in each case 
upon the control of the sea, which is now about to be gravely 
challenged. France declared war early in 1778. s ... . 
The fleet left Toulon in April. Before its ar- sionofthe 
rival off New York in June Philadelphia had intervenes 1 " 
been evacuated hastily, but in excellent order, Fcb - x 77 8 - 
and the English army concentrated once more 
in New York. But it was quickly seen that the French 
admiral was primarily concerned to attack the British West 
Indies. Clinton then felt free to open a campaign in the 
southern colonies, where loyalist opinions were known to be 



224 The Capitulation of Cornwallis, 1781. [CH. VI. 

strong. By the end of the year 1778 Georgia was recovered; 
, . , South Carolina was entered (Tan. 1770) with little 

The colonial . w ' ' 7/ 

war transferred resistance. Henceforward the southern colonies 

*° i^s-i^i.' are the main seat of P erat i on s- Charleston was 
taken by a force brought from New York ; and 
Cornwallis placed in command of a strong force, as the nucleus 
of a southern army with which to sweep the Carolinas and 
Virginia itself. The easy victory at Camden (Aug. 1780) en- 
couraged the hope that the resistance of New England would 
not be repeated in the slave colonies. But the intervention of 
the French, which had led to the abandonment of Philadelphia, 
now caused the evacuation of Rhode Island waters by the 
English fleet and the diversion of ships and troops from New 
York to the West Indies. The French land force, however, was 
in turn blockaded in the harbour of Newport at a time when 
Washington's position, as he watched New York, became 
steadily more gloomy. Cornwallis in the south was pre- 
paring a venturesome attempt to reach the Hudson by land 
march from Carolina. In the spring of 1781 he was in 
Virginia, much disappointed at the absence of effective sup- 
port from Loyalists. Washington concerted a joint operation 
with the French to intercept Cornwallis, who had taken up 
a defensive position at Yorktown, in order to await supports. 
The English general, confidently expecting Clinton and his fleet, 
saw the French admiral De Grasse, with 28 ships of the 
line, sail in to blockade the Chesapeake. Washington, with 
Rochambeau, his French colleague, occupied the base of the 
„ peninsula and forced an attack. Cornwallis, 

Surrender of r . . ' 

Cornwallis, now closely invested, surrendered at discretion 
Oct. 1781. on t j ie yer y ^ a y t k at Clinton set sail to relieve 

him (Oct. 19, 1 781). With the surrender of Cornwallis the 
war on the continent had practically ceased. The effect of the 
news upon the King and the Ministry was overwhelming. 

The maritime war of 17 78-1 782 was at once part of, and 
distinct from, the colonial war. It was part of it in so far as 



1764 — 1783-] Results of the War. 225 

the French land force, supported by the French fleet, brought 

about the surrender of Cornwallis. But this 

was practically the one important service ren- W a r he I ~|T I a 7 1 8a 

dered by the allies to the colonial cause in the 

field. Congress, however, relied for money and supplies upon 

French liberality : and, further, by compelling diversion of 

armaments to Gibraltar, and to the West and East Indies, 

perhaps even more by reducing the American struggle to a 

second place in English minds, the action of France had 

indirectly much influence on events in America. 

Apart from the crucial success of De Grasse at Yorktown, 
French admirals did little in the North Atlantic : 
they were generally out-manceuvred. They took jhVwar.* 11 * ° f 
Tobago and most of the smaller Antilles, but lost 
St Lucia: they were defeated by Rodney off Martinique, 
though in much superior force (April, 1782). St Eustace, a 
rich prize, was taken from the Dutch. Plans for combined 
operations of French and Spanish fleets in the Channel came 
to nothing : nor did the strenuous efforts of Spain to reduce 
Gibraltar. On the other hand, Rodney destroyed their 
squadron off St Vincent. Minorca was lost, and some coast 
settlements in Florida. The activity of Suffren, the ablest 
French seaman of the time, in the East will be noticed later. 
But the war showed that England, unprepared General 
as she was, could, though with heavy risks, hold sition of 
her own against the entire naval strength of the^ea. 
Europe. Thus she was enabled to conclude 
a peace on terms comparatively favourable. 

The Treaty of Versailles, Jan. 1783, was of necessity a 
humiliation for England. Although Rodney's T . 
victory in the West Indies was followed by the results of the 
recovery of most of the losses that had been war ' 
incurred in those seas, the general feeling in England was one 
of disgust at the whole war, and a desire for peace on any 
terms. The main articles agreed upon with America and her 

w. e. 15 



226 Territorial changes. [CH. VI. 

allies were these, (i) The American colonies acquired com- 
plete independence. Their western boundary was the Missis- 
sippi, their southern limit the northern border of the Spanish 
Floridas. The Loyalists were practically refused amnesty by 
the different states and forced to emigrate, thus peopling Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick and Upper Canada with a body of 
admirable colonists, fiercely hostile to the republic which 
had ejected them. To these exiles the British Government 
paid compensation to the amount of ^4,000,000 sterling. 
The mistaken policy of the victorious party in America, in 
wreaking vengeance upon the defeated party, worked, in the 
judgment of American historians, no little injury to the well- 
being of the American state. (2) France strengthened her 
rights in Newfoundland waters as the islands of St Pierre and 
Miquelon passed wholly into her possession. She received, 
also, from England Tobago, but retained no other of her con- 
quests in the West Indies. Goree in West Africa was sur- 
rendered, and in India Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Mah£ and 
other small trading posts reverted to her. (3) Spain retained 
Minorca, which she had captured, but was disappointed in her 
hopes of Gibraltar. East Florida, which she had lost in 1763, 
she now recovered. (4) The result of the war to Holland was 
confined mainly to the enormous losses incurred by her shipping 
on the high seas and in the West Indian ports. 

But the indirect results of the war, less easy to enumerate 
in definite shape, were of more importance than 
sequences of " these transfers of territory would imply. 
American j t j s not possible, even yet, to estimate the 

Independence. ... . 

effects m history of the creation of a new state 
of British origin, energy, and ideals. But to American In- 
dependence we may ascribe without hesitation these results : 
the fall of the English mercantile system, the beginning of a 
new idea of colonial relations, the break up of the Spanish 
Empire in the west, and the French Revolution. 

The United States now pass out of the history of the British 



1764 — 17^3-] Lessons of the American Revolt. 227 

Empire. The creation of an English dominion from Hudson's 
Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, achieved by the T 

' t 7 J Lessons of 

genius of Chatham, had no sooner been ac- American 
complished than it was undone. The gain of 
Canada was but a trifling set-off against the severance of the 
settled and fertile provinces just surrendered. The story of 
their origin, their prosperity, their alienation and loss, may 
still suggest certain lessons concerning the principles and 
conduct of Colonial policy. 

For nearly a century the one lesson derived from England's 
failure in America, a lesson accepted some- 
times with regret, sometimes with complacency, deduction" 1 ' 
was this : a colony is like a fruit which, when 
ripe, falls naturally from the tree. In other words, the loss of 
America prefigured the inevitable loss, in due course, of other 
colonies of the Empire. Down to a date well past the middle 
of the nineteenth century, this may be called the recognised 
doctrine of the relation of colonies to the mother country : 
a doctrine which had for its results popular indifference 
to the colonies and a despair of the possibility of Imperial 
unity. 

But if we examine it, we find that this broad conclusion 
has been drawn from one group of colonies .. . 

r which rests on 

alone, and that their example has not, as a this solitary 
matter of fact, been followed by other groups. 
We are then led to ask whether the circumstances of the 
American colonies and of their alienation are marked by cha- 
racteristics peculiar to this particular instance. The American 
On reflexion, we remember that America had its case a special 
origin in an age of religious and political aggres- 
siveness, which was fostered by a selfish mercantile policy on 
the part of the mother country, inevitable in an age ignorant of 
political economy, and careful of colonies merely as sources of 
trade-profit. We have seen Colonial affairs treated as the fair 
field of jobbery and incompetence ; whilst but one statesman 

15—2 



228 Lessons of tlie American Revolt. [CH. VI. 

in a century viewed the interests of the colonists, as distin- 
guished from the mere acquisition of territory, in a spirit of 
serious concern. Finally, we have the whole delicate fabric of 
Colonial relations tumbled into chaos by the self-will of one of 
the most arbitrary and ignorant monarchs in our history. 

The loss of America, then, reads to us rather this lesson. 
Where colonies are advanced, prosperous, and populous ; where 
they have no need of the strength of the Empire for protection; 
where they have been treated as mere customers for goods and 
not as partners in the Commonwealth ; where their sentiments 
and their interests alike are ignored by Parliament, Ministers 
and King ; where, in a word, colonies have the meanest place 
in the imagination and in the functions of their nominal rulers, 
— then colonies are apt to quit the Empire. More than that 
the American revolt does not prove. It may be true that 
America was bound, sooner or later, to become an independent 
nation. But, in the actual order of events, her independence 
was due to British ignorance, to the mercantile system, and to 
George III. 



229 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CREATION OF BRITISH SOVEREIGNTY IN INDIA. 
I763— 1805. 

The attempt to govern India by Englishmen acting as 
agents of a native sovereign of their own creation 
was obviously full of risks. There was the cer- I7 ^ eneal after 
tainty that methods of administration would be 
hard to reconcile, and the probability that the titular lord 
might forget his actual dependence. The latter difficulty 
happened first Mir Jaffier, now a leper and an imbecile, 
was in 1761 superseded by his son-in-law, Mir Cossim. The 
new Nawab proved to have a will of his own and had the 
courage to defend his authority against the Company by arms. 
Enraged by his prompt defeat in the field, he ordered all 
the English residents in the Factory at Patna, who were for 
the moment at his mercy, to be murdered (1763). The Nawab 
Vizir of Oudh gave him shelter; and so became involved in 
the war : and as he controlled both the person and the remain- 
ing authority of the Moghul, the latter also, perforce, joined in 
the struggle. The battle of Buxar (1764) was a 
decisive defeat for the allies. The Moghul was B ^]\^ 4 _ 
in English hands, a prisoner and a suppliant : 
a triumph more important in native eyes than that of Plassey. 
Oudh submitted in the following year. 



230 Clive's Second Administration. [CH. VII. 

Fortunately Clive at this moment (June, 1765) appeared 

once more in Bengal, as Governor for a second 

to C ind!a re i"6 r 5 nS term - He dealt promptly with the situation 

created by the recent victories. The Moghul 

granted to the Company the Diwanni^ or right of collecting 

The En Hsh an< ^ administering the Imperial revenue, of the 

and the three provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. 

og u , 17 5. j n return, a yearly allowance of ^300,000 was 

guaranteed to the Emperor, and two districts were ceded by 

Oudh as an Imperial estate. Oudh was not further curtailed. 

The Nawab of Bengal was henceforth a person of no political 

significance. It is important to note the effect of Clive's 

settlement of 1765. 

The Moghul, the source of all legitimate authority in 

Northern India and the Deccan, was now a 

mentors." P u PP et m English hands. Clive hardly seems 

to have realised what this implied. In the next 

place, the Company, besides the military control of Bengal, 

had now the administration of its public revenue. For the 

present, however, the collection of the land-tax, 

at British °ad- or State ground-rents, which constituted the 

ministration greater part of this income, was, perhaps inevit- 

in Bengal. 6 , , , t . , , , - '. £■ • , 

ably, left in the hands of native officials as 
hitherto; and the Nawab, after defraying the cost of the 
Company's forces, and of internal government, remitted the 
balance to the Governor of Bengal instead of to the Moghul. 
It is clear that such an arrangement was bound to produce 
friction. 

The Calcutta government was, to all intents, sovereign in 

Bengal: revenue collection — in the East the 
characte n r tatiVe touchstone of honest rule — justice, and police, 

were left to a titular Nawab, acting through 
officials over whom he had no effective control, yet for whose 
action the Company declined responsibility. Oppression and 
embezzlement ensued on a scale unprecedented even in Bengal. 



1 763 — 1 805 .] English Government of India. 231 

The settlement proved to be of a temporary nature, a transition 
between native and English administration. 

Clive now turned his attention to the work which had been 
the immediate purpose of his appointment. He Re f orm at 
had himself taken part in the shameless scramble Calcutta, 
for wealth which followed the victory of Plassey. Iy 
Perhaps his frequent intercourse with Pitt in 1761— 2 had given 
him a higher idea of English responsibilities. During his 
absence at home corruption had eaten deeply into every part 
of the Company's service. Exactions from native rulers and 
officials, unjust immunities from regular taxation, plunder of 
helpless native traders and cultivators, — almost every form of 
fiscal oppression known to the East had been enforced with the 
energy and precision of the West. The province was already 
sensibly poorer, and revenue fell off; the Company approached 
bankruptcy, whilst its servants divided millions of money 
amongst themselves. Clive cut at the roots of corruption 
with ruthless severity, undeterred by resistance and mutiny. The 
lucrative 'private' trade was cut down : secret presents from 
natives were forbidden ; irregular allowances were commuted 
for increase of pay. The Governor returned to England in 
1767 having proved himself as strong in civil administration as 
in the field. 

For some years the main interest of Indian history lies in 
the problem of government. Three stages are g e8 }n 
to be noted : first, that of Clive just described ; Indian ad- 
second, that marked by the Regulating Act, mini8 
1773, and the civil reform of Warren Hastings based upon it; 
third, the India Bill of the younger Pitt (1784). 

The Governor of Bengal controlled 26,000,000 of people, a 
revenue of ^4,000,000 and 30,000 troops. He 
was, in all but name, a sovereign. It was main- iagX^im^' 
tained — notably by Chatham — that territorial 
sovereignty can only be exercised by the Crown, and that the 
Company, as a political authority, was an anomaly. The great 



232 TIu Regulating Act, 1773. [CH. vii. 

famine in Bengal of 1770, the most terrible of all such visita- 
tions of which we have record, forced the 
of T i77o. Famine responsibilities of England to India upon public 
opinion, already made sensitive by the aggressive 
wealth of the retired officials of the Company, and the scan- 
dalous stories of its origin. Parliamentary enquiry revealed a 
state of things which shocked a not too scrupulous age ; and 
the Company became an object of general distrust. Under 
these circumstances the Regulating Act of Lord North, on 
the whole a statesmanlike attempt to provide a government 
for British India, passed by large majorities. Burke, with his 
ingrained respect for vested rights, resisted the proposed 
reform, not perceiving that the true point at issue was the 
profound distinction between the privileges of a Company 
chartered for trade and the functions of sovereignty afterwards 
The govern- f° rce d upon it. Clive supported the Bill. By 
ment of India, this measure the Governor of Bengal acquired a 
general control over the action of the Pre- 
sidencies of Bombay and Madras in respect of negotiations 
or war. The old Council at Calcutta was replaced by a body 
of four, nominated in the first instance by Parliament. A new 
Supreme Court was established for protection of natives against 
exaction. All political and military despatches of the Company 
were to be submitted to the Secretary of State. The Crown 
thus took within its cognisance all the functions of the 
Company outside its mercantile activity. The degree of State 
control was left undefined. But first steps were taken towards 
two ends of great importance, in introducing the rudiments of 
(a) a central administration in India, and of (b) a supreme 
State department at home. 

This year saw the death, by his own hand, of Robert, Lord 

Clive. His latter years had been clouded by 

ciive**!^ t * ie an g T 7 controversy which raged around all 

who had been engaged in recent Indian affairs. 

Beginning life as a clerk in the Factory at Madras, the Carnatic 



1763 — 1805.] Warren Hastings. 233 

war gave him the opportunity of proving that tenacity, resource 
and military instinct which distinguished him. Energy, en- 
durance, strength of will — qualities which have in each gene- 
ration gone to the making of the British power in India — were 
the leading features of Clive's nature. But whilst he had both 
military and administrative gifts of a high order, he' lacked that 
personal integrity upon which British influence has been most 
securely founded. Yet Burke (and he could have no stricter 
censor) declared that he atoned, by the great services to Indian 
probity of his second administration, for the errors and evil 
example of his first. 

Warren Hastings, who had been appointed Governor of 
Bengal in 1772, became the first Governor- 
General under the Act. His famous trial, which Hastings in 

has rendered his name more familiar than Bengal, 

1772 — 1786. 
that of any other of the rulers of India, has 

tended to obscure the true place which he occupies in 
the history of the Empire. Let it be said at once that 
Hastings stands in the very first rank of British-Indian states- 
men. No criticism of isolated acts can nullify the truth that 
his genius alone secured the safety of British rule in a supreme 
crisis. 

The services which he rendered to India fall under two 
heads : his administrative reforms and his defen- 
sive policy. If we look back upon Clive as the In H ^ work in 
founder of British sovereignty in Bengal, the 
basis of the British administrative system was due to Hastings. 
Research proves ever more conclusively the zeal . . 

and unwearied industry with which Hastings trative organi- 
attacked the work of organising the rural govern- sa I0n ' 
ment of Bengal. Starting from the instructions which he had 
brought from home, that the Company should 
take the actual fiscal administration of the 
province into its own hands, he first removed the exchequer 
from Moorshedabad, the native capital, to Calcutta. He cut 



234 His Civil Reforms. [CH. vii. 

down the allowance paid to the infant Nawab; the native 
revenue controllers were removed in merited disgrace. English 
officials were appointed as Collectors, with limited judicial 
powers, and a native police was tentatively organised. In 
every Eastern state an honest and intelligible revenue system 
lies at the root of all order and prosperity ; Hastings spared no 
pains in examining, on repeated journeys, the actual working 
of the land-tax in different parts of Bengal. 

In respect of trade he put an end, so far as his powers 

enabled him, to the tyrannical dealings of the 

Company's servants with the helpless class of 
weavers and traders. He simplified transit and customs duties, 
and strove in various ways to repair the ravages of the great 
famine. Burke's rhetorical fervour never led him into grosser 
untruth than in his declaration that under the government of 
Hastings " the country itself, all its beauty and glory, ended in 

a jungle for wild beasts." In matters of Justice, 
justice. ^ nat - ye Supreme Court was brought from 
Moorshedabad to Calcutta, and proved a far more effective 
safeguard than the Court established under the Act of 1773, 
with its English judges and its basis of English Common Law. 
In this continuous work of civil organisation Hastings found 
only moderate sympathy from the Directors at home, whilst 
he met with persistent obstruction from the malignity of 
Philip Francis, the most active member of the new Council at 
Calcutta. 

In his relations with Native Powers, the uniform aim of 

Hastings was to safeguard the territory of the 
(b) oHcyr Company, and not to enlarge it. Danger 

threatened from three sources : from the Mah- 
rattas, from Hyder Ali of Mysore, and from the French. The 
critical period of his administration fell within the years 1777 — 
1783, a period when England was sorely pressed in Europe 
and in America. Hastings was fully aware that for the defence 
of India he must rely only upon himself. 



1763 — 1805.] His Native Policy. 235 

The Mahratta chief, Sindia, had, in 1771, acquired the 
control of the person, revenues, and territory of 
the phantom Emperor. It was evident that in th "Moghuf n 
the near future the great marauding power would 
come into conflict with the British, upon whom demands for 
chauth or forced tribute were already being made. The buffer 
state guarding the north-west frontier of Bengal from Mahratta 
attack was Oudh. Clive had, in 1765, taken from Oudh two 
provinces and handed them over to the Moghul, who had, under 
duresse, surrendered them to Sindia. Hastings resumed the 
ceded territory and discontinued the tribute on the ground 
that, the Moghul being no longer a free agent, the Company was 
in effect subsidising Sindia, The provinces were 
sold to the Nawab of Oudh as part of an ar- 
rangement by which his state was defended by an English 
force. 

The affairs of the Mahrattas in the west occupied Hastings' 
attention from 1775. The Bombay Council, 
contrary to the terms of the Regulating Act, had th^pesh'wa 8 
interfered in the disputed succession to the office and the Bom - 

. . bay Govern- 

of Peshwa, the hereditary premiership of the ment, 1775. 
Confederacy. The seat of the Peshwa's govern- 
ment was at Poona; and at this period his power, itself an 
usurpation of the authority of the ancient Mahratta dynasty, 
who survived as mere puppets, was in course of supersession 
by the more vigorous chiefs, Sindia, Holkar, and the Rajah of 
Nagpur. It seemed, perhaps, a good opening for Bombay to 
follow the example of Madras and Bengal in gaining sovereignty 
by interference in native politics. Hastings strongly condemned 
such rash action and ordered a reversal of the steps so far 
taken. 

An emissary of the French Ministry now arrived on the 
West coast, with orders to proffer European aid 
to the Mahrattas with the view of checking the involved"** 
power of England and re-establishing a French 



236 The Mahratta War. [ch. vil. 

policy in the Peninsula. Hastings, with his usual promptness, 

saw that such intervention demanded a re- 
w^, h i7% ta consideration of his general policy. French 

sympathy with America was maturing into active 
alliance, and in the summer of 1778 news of the declaration of 
war reached India. Hastings threw the whole weight of the 
Bengal power, in troops, treasure, and credit into the struggle. 

Chandernagore was taken in July, Pondicherry 
atfa^ked! in October, 1778, Mate in May, 1779. The 

Mahrattas were astonished by the activity of the 
English. General Goddard marched from the Ganges 
to the Taptee in the winter of 1778-9 and occupied the 
Mahratta state of Guzerat, whilst Popham stormed Gwalior, 
the strong outpost fortress of Sindia towards the northern 
plain. 

The chief interest of the war, which led to no great terri- 
torial changes, lay in the evidence it afforded of the power of 
small British and Sepoy detachments to resist greatly superior 
forces of the Mahrattas. As many as 60,000 troops harassed 
Goddard's retreat in 1779, without preventing his object. But 
Hastings was wise enough to perceive that the Mahratta 
power was too strong for him to cope with it effectually 
under the distractions which rendered support from home 
impossible. 

In Sept. 1780 the news came that Hyder Ali had descended 
. , A . s in force upon the Carnatic, and that a French 

Hyder Ali r 

invades the fleet had sailed for India with 7,000 troops, 
carnatic, 1780. There were at th i s moment 30,000 Mahrattas 

threatening the borders of south-western Bengal; and the 
. Nizam was wavering. In Hastings' words : "the 

Hastmgsand ... ,11 • ri 1 

the crisis of cnsis demanded the most instant, powerful, and 
even hazardous, exertion of the government." 
Peace was negotiated with the Mahrattas on terms which 
restored the "status quo ante bellum." Sindia was satisfied 
by a large sum ; Rugonath Rao was pensioned and his claim 



1763 — 1805.] The War against Hyder Ali. 237 

withdrawn. Meantime the treasury was empty, the army small, 
and Eyre Coote, the only experienced general on the spot, was 
past his prime. Yet Hyder was ravaging the Carnatic up to a 
few miles of Madras, the Nawab was a fugitive, the French were 
momentarily expected. The urgency of the crisis led Hastings 
to adopt harsh measures to recover monies due „ 

r < He raises 

to the Company from the Rajah of Benares, and money: the 
to support the Nawab of Oudh in extracting e & um »- 
from the Begums, or Princesses, a part of the accumulations of 
State revenue inherited — legally or not — from the late Nawab. 
The Vizier of Oudh was thus enabled to pay up the arrears of 
subsidy due to the Company. Hastings, with these resources, 
by pledging credit, and stopping remittances to London, was in 
a position to come to the aid of Madras. 

The crisis was, perhaps, the most serious that has ever 
threatened the British in India. For the success 
of Hyder Ali would undoubtedly have brought e anger * 
all native India into the field against the European intruders. 
Within a month (Nov. 1780) the invading army had the 
Carnatic at its mercy. Coote made a brave resistance ; by aid 
of the fleet operations were undertaken on the western coast 
of Mysore, thus distracting the attention of Hyder from Madras. 
But the arrival of Suffren, the most distinguished 
French admiral of the century, and the subse- t he U coast °i78a 
quent landing of De Bussy with a strong corps 
of French infantry, placed Hyder in a commanding position. 
But the Mahrattas and the Nizam had been now (1782) won 
over to a friendly neutrality, and shortly after 
Hyder died suddenly. Before the war closed, Hyder ah, 
in the following year, Suffren had proved how ov ' I7 
essential to British security in India was the command of the 
sea. For his squadron, being slightly superior in strength to 
that of Admiral Hughes, not only hampered British operations 
and encouraged native resistance, but was able to throw a 
hostile European force into the seat of war. 



238 The Trial of Hastings. [CH. VII. 

Hyder's death and the subsequent news of the French 
peace at home led to negotiations. England was then in the 

mood to wind up hostilities wherever possible. 
i784. he Peace ' Tippoo Sultan, the son of Hyder, threatened by 

the Mahrattas, consented to withdraw into 
Mysore, but with every intention of renewing the war when 
better opportunity offered. The French, on their part, gained 
nothing by their intervention. 

Hastings was recalled in 1786, and his impeachment 

followed. The eloquence of Burke and Sheridan 
Hastings!* 1 ° f was devoted to an exaggerated presentment of 

subordinate events of Hastings' career, "the 
scandals of a hundred years ago, dead and buried like the 
individuals implicated." Two of the charges may be mentioned 
in this place, the lending of a British force for the reduction of 
Rohilkhand by the Nawab of Oudh, and the death of Nun- 
comar. On both these points the results of enquiry now tend 
to show that Hastings' conduct, though not wholly free from 
blame, admits of reasonable defence. But, whilst Burke's 

charges were not substantiated — for Hastings was 
of'the a Tri£ !Ct finally acquitted upon them all — the great im- 
peachment profoundly affected English standards 
of Indian administration. It served as an eloquent protest on 
behalf of lofty ideals of government which have never since 
been lacking to British administrators of our great Eastern 
dependency. 

The Regulating Act of 1773 was the first step in the 

transfer of the government of British India from 
Art^af dia the Company to the Crown. Under the India 

Bill of Pitt, 1784, Indian Administration was 
conducted until 1858. By this Act the direction of all political 
affairs in India passed to a new department of State, the Board 
of Control, whose chief was a Cabinet Minister. The Governor- 
General and all higher officials were henceforth nominated by 
the Ministry of the day. The remaining patronage remained 



1763 — 1805.] The Permanent Settlement. 239 

with the Directors, as did also the control of the trading 
interests of the Company. Certain declaratory clauses against 
further annexations, and treaties likely to lead thereto, formed 
part of the Act, but circumstances rendered them nugatory in 
effect. 

The new policy demanded that a statesman of position 
should in future represent Great Britain in India. 
Lord Cornwallis, in whose capacity and integrity ^j^f i-m™ 
the highest confidence was reposed by Ministers 
and by the country at large, was sent out in 1786. His ap- 
pointment marks a new era : " Never before," wrote Dundas, 
"had Great Britain a government in India and in England 
acting in complete harmony on principles of perfect purity 
and independence." His higher status and authority enabled 
him to extend the policy of Hastings in purifying the Company's 
administration. By careful finance he was in a position to 
defray all Indian charges and to remit large sums to London. 
But his most important service was the establishment of the 
revenue of Bengal upon a secure basis by what is Th 
known as the Permanent Settlement. Indian nent Settie- 
rulers have immemorially derived their taxation ment ' 
from the land. In the time of the great Emperor Akbar an 
assessment of the revenue due from the soil had been made. 
The collectors of this revenue had acquired hereditary rights 
which the E.I.C., when they took over the administration 
of Bengal (page 230) as Diwan, had recognised. Hastings 
had made a beginning of a new Settlement, but it was left 
to Lord Cornwallis to establish the Land Tax of Bengal on 
a definite footing. Surveys and valuations of the cultivated 
area of the province were carried out during a period of three 
years. The rights of the collectors, or Zemindars, were then 
converted into ownership, limited on the one hand by the prior 
charges due to the State and by the traditional tenant-right 
of the cultivator or Ryot on the other. The Land Revenue due 
to the State in respect of each field was now declared perma- 



240 Cornwallis and Tippoo. [ch. VII. 

nent, that is, it could not rise with the increased value of the 
soil. Now, such has been the prosperity of Bengal under 
British rule, that whereas, in the time of the Moghuls (say 1600), 
between 40 and 50 per cent, of the produce of the soil was 
claimed as royal dues, the average proportion claimed by the 
Indian exchequer to-day does not exceed 6 per cent. 

Cornwallis had been appointed to secure India against 

The second wnat na( ^ been described as a policy of ambition, 
Mysore War, but he found himself compelled to follow in the 
steps of his great predecessor. The second 
Mysore War of 1790 was forced upon England by the restless- 
ness of Tippoo Sultan, who regarded the English — and with 
justice — as the main obstacle to his supremacy in the Deccan. 
Hyder Ali, his father, had created the most powerful army in 
India. - Tippoo had further organised Mysore as a military 
state, the strategic position of which rendered it a constant 
menace to the Carnatic, to the Nizam, and even to the 
Mahratta states of Poona and Berar. In 1 790, Tippoo attacked 
the Protected state of Travancore. Cornwallis, thus compelled 
to intervene, concluded alliances with the Nizam and the 
Peshwa of Poona, whilst Tippoo invited the intervention of 
the French. The native allies of the Company proved half- 
hearted; they were, in fact, intriguing with Tippoo himself. 
The Mahrattas appeared just a year after they were due. 
The Nizam's troops waited to enter Mysore until all risk of 
a native meeting the enemy had passed away. They 

army de- formed a motley array : " clothed in armour of 
every conceivable variety, including the Parthian 
bow and arrow, the iron club of Scythia, sabres of every age 
and nation, lances of every length and description, matchlocks 
of every form. But there was neither order nor discipline nor 
valour among them; they were unable to protect their own 
foragers and soon ceased to move beyond the English pickets." 
The fighting naturally fell to the English. When Cornwallis 
in person attacked Seringapatam (Feb. 1792), Tippoo, without 



1763 — 1805.] Lord Wellesley in India, 241 

awaiting assault, surrendered. The result of the war was 
to enlarge English territory by the cession of 
the western sea-board of Mysore, which formed ^Tv^** 1 * 
the first acquisition of the Bombay Presidency 
on the mainland. Madras received certain areas on the 
southern and eastern slopes of the Ghauts, and a large in- 
demnity was paid. The event increased the prestige of 
England as a military power. At the same time the helpless- 
ness of the state of Haidarabad and the untrustworthy nature 
of the army of the Peshwa were significantly proved. Protests 
were made in Parliament against the " policy of annexation," 
but it was easy to establish that statutory provisions drawn up 
in ignorance of facts and without reference to emergencies, 
must, in a time of crisis, be set aside. The defence of 
Cornwallis was complete, and careful observers noted that 
the progress of English dominion in India was unlikely ever to 
be seriously checked by parliamentary opinion. 

The next important step in the advance of British power in 
India is marked by the arrival of Lord Wellesley Lord 
as Governor-General in 1798. An intimate Wellesley, 
friend of Pitt, he had been, like him, carried 
away by the strong current of hostility to France aroused by 
the events of 1793. It is impossible to understand the policy 
of Wellesley in India apart from the intense 
dread of French ambition which actuated English p Jjn n n-id?a h 
feeling at that time. 

The treaty of Campo Formio (1797) enabled Bonaparte 
to design a grand attack upon England. The naval strength 
of Great Britain forbade the prospect of successful invasion. 
The Directory was easily persuaded that the arch-enemy was 
most vulnerable in the East, where already Tippoo was burning 
to avenge the defeat of 1792. The French owned in Mauritius 
an admirable naval base ; French officers were in command of 
powerful corps in the service of the Nizam and of Sindia. 
The occupation of Egypt was undertaken (1798) as the first 

W. E. l6 



242 Conquest of Mysore. [CH. VII. 

step towards a vigorous attempt to supplant the English power 
in India. It is only necessary to add here, that once more 
the absence of the sea-power frustrated French ambitions. 
Nelson's victory of the Nile, three weeks after Bonaparte had 
landed in Alexandria, scattered for the present French dreams 
of Asiatic dominion. But to the rulers of British India Bona- 
parte's projects were by no means as visionary as they are to 
us. We must remember that Trafalgar had not yet been fought, 
that the English power was in no sense paramount in the 
Peninsula, and that Napoleon already overawed European 
statesmen by the uniformity of his good fortune in the field. 

Lord Wellesley brought with him to India a determination 
to secure British power in the East against European inter- 
ference. In carrying out his policy he applied the principles 
of Dupleix in their completeness, and with such success that, 
when the French peril was finally banished as a consequence 
of the crucial victory of Trafalgar, Great Britain had become 
the paramount Power in India from Delhi to Cape Comorin. 

He had scarcely reached India when he heard the news 
Th of Tippoo's advances to the French Government 

Conquest of and of vast preparations at Toulon for an Eastern 
ysore, 1799. cam paign. Wellesley proposed to Madras a 
prompt invasion of Mysore. The difficulties of the position, 
serious as they were, did not dismay him. The Nizam and the 
Peshwa, our allies in the last war, were now either helpless or 
hostile ; the Madras army was weak ; the treasure and the credit 
of the Company were at a low ebb. The Governor-General 
dealt first with the Nizam. His French corps, 15,000 strong, 
was disbanded and, by a subsidiary treaty, a force officered 
by Englishmen was substituted for it; the Nizam further 
binding himself not to take Europeans into his service without 
British consent. Tippoo was now invited to enter into the 
British alliance and to abandon his relations with France, 
which he defiantly proclaimed by assuming the title of "Citizen 
Tippoo." On his refusal war was declared (Feb. 1799). Three 



1763 — 1805.] Defensive Treaty with the Nizam. 243 

months later Seringapatam was assaulted and taken, Tippoo 
falling in the breach. The capture of the Mysore capital was 
the most notable military achievement the British had yet won 
in India. 

The settlement of Mysore deserves attention in that it is 
typical of one important aspect of British dealings The settle . 
with native states. Wellesley decided to main- ment of 
tain Mysore as a separate power under the old yso 
Hindoo dynasty, expelled by the Mohammedan usurper Hyder 
Ali 30 years before. The true heir, a boy of five, was brought 
from confinement — it is to the credit of Tippoo that his life 
had been spared — and under an English Resident elevated to 
the throne. Native officials administered the State and the old 
Hindoo life and faith were restored amidst popular rejoicing. 
Mysore is governed to-day by its native Rajah under the 
provisions of the peace of 1799. The defence of the State was 
taken over by the English, and to defray its cost the belt of 
country below the Ghauts, stretching from the west coast to 
the east, was allotted to the Company. The Nizam and the 
Peshwa also received additions to their territories. What was 
left was the old kingdom of Mysore as Hyder Ali had found it. 

The Nizam, whose weak government was always a source 

of danger to his own security and to that of his 

neighbours, and rendered him an easy prey to treatywith 5 ' 

Mahratta raids from the north and the west, thc Nizam > 

' 1800. 

was glad to surrender his share of Mysore in 
return for the systematic protection of the English power. 
Accordingly he entered in 1800 into a subsidiary alliance 
with Lord Wellesley, by which he disbanded his own army — 
the nature of which we have seen — and received eight bat- 
talions of British sepoys. The cost of his English corps 
was met by the cession of the newly-acquired territory. By 
this arrangement no burden was levied upon the population, 
friction arising from arrears of subsidy was avoided, and the 
Nizam was secured against external attack. 

16 — 2 



244 Treaty with Oudh. [ch. vill. 

As part of the general establishment of British authority in 
The Carnatic Southern India, the Carnatic and Tanjore were 
and Tanjore, at this time (1800 — 1) brought directly under 
British dominion. The dependent Nawab of 
the Carnatic had long been the centre of scandalous intrigue, 
and his government a source of misery to his subjects and 
a danger to the British, who were responsible for his defence. 
Disputed succession and confessed traitorous relations with 
Tippoo provided the opportunity. To the intense relief of 
the inhabitants, the Madras presidency took over in full 
sovereignty the territory of the old Arcot state. A similar 
arrangement was voluntarily proposed by the Rajah of the 
small state of Tanjore. 

The position of England in Southern India had thus 
undergone striking developments during the few 
sovereignty years of Wellesley's rule. In place of a rancorous 
i n <f° Ut 8o rn an( ^ powerful enemy we had in Mysore a de- 
pendent ally, whose territory formed a second 
line of defence. With the removal of the tyranny of Tippoo, 
industry had revived, and the Hindoos were gratified by the 
restoration of their native House and religion. The French 
had lost once for all their chief point d'appui in India. The 
Carnatic and Tanjore under British order grew rapidly in 
wealth and population. The interests of the Nizam were 
henceforward closely identified with British rule. In the 
Deccan, therefore, and the country to the south of it, Great 
Britain was recognised as the paramount Power. 

Lord Wellesley now turned his attention to the north-west 
frontier of Bengal. The outer line of defence 
was formed by the state of Oudh, the internal 
condition of which was a constant source of anxiety to the 
Government at Calcutta. The Nawab was a mere voluptuary, 
his army an undisciplined rabble. Civil order was maintained 
only by the interference of the subsidiary corps which since 
1765 had protected the capital. All signs portended speedy 



...... if- 






/oHILrtHAND /' 



^«i 



l..,.v.i;,,,i 

X 1803 o' 



^ o v>o 

BI>urtpore*-JV. ^^C' C 
ISINDIASo. ..V^vfN.- * 
R|AJ PUTANA I DOMINION,' 

G 0, 



^m j£s 



Patna?' 



HOLKAR'S 

DOMINION 

i rndore ,.45 



'Afo 



*<■*„. 



unit 



\ssaye 

/ peishWa °XI803 

HnwmV? l DOMINION 

.Minn diia^ai 



Nagpui 



AND 



THE 
BERARS 



B E NNp a 



BOMBAY 



OF THE 
' Po< j na NIZAM 

HaidiSubiul 



Oat , 
(Port) 







CAMB. UNIV. PRESS 







)l A 

)5. 



IB. UNIV. PRESS 



1763— 1 80s.] The Mahrattas. 245 

disaster. Wellesley now urged upon the Nawab to disband his 
native troops, to increase his English force and to allot 
territory for its support. Under the treaty of 1801 the Doab 
and Rohilkhand were ceded to the British, and the Nawab 
undertook to effect a thorough * reform of his administration 
under English supervision. In return, the integrity of his 
dominion was guaranteed against foreign attack. The popu- 
lation, the Nawab, and the English alike benefited by a 
settlement which, by establishing security, encouraged industry 
and stimulated the cultivation of the soil. 

We now come to Lord Wellesley's dealings with the 
Mahratta states. A reference to the map shews Pos j t i 0n f 
that the four great Mahratta chiefs, the Peshwa, the Mahrattas, 
Holkar, Sindia, and the Rajah of Berar, domi- 
nated western and central India. The nominal head of the 
confederacy, if we may so describe the uncertain bond which 
united these Hindoo chiefs, was the Peshwa, now the weakest 
of the group. His capital was Poona, and his attitude was 
always a matter of concern both to the Nizam and to the 
Presidency of Bombay. Sindia, the most ambitious, was also 
the strongest, of the four, partly on account of his youth and 
ability, partly by his position as controlling the person of the 
Moghul and most of all by reason of the force of 50,000 sepoys, 
drilled by French officers and supported by a formidable 
artillery, which protected his State. Holkar had most affinity 
with the old marauding type of Mahratta; his strength lay 
in his irregular horse. The limits of the territorial power 
of these chieftains were never defined. Not one of them 
possessed a lawful title. In each case their rule was the 
result of plundering incursions into territories of weaker rulers. 
The original home of their race lay in the western Ghauts, 
which at this time formed part of the Peshwa's state. Thence 
they had secured the control of the Moghul, threatened Raj- 
putana, and possessed themselves of Central India from Orissa 
to Baroda. They levied blackmail from the Nizam and 



246 The Treaty of Bassein. [CH. VII. 

demanded it from Bengal. They had, like the Turk, the 
destructive instinct of the savage, and though like him they 
could take on a veneer of civilization, their power was incom- 
patible with progress, order and the arts of settled life. The 
annihilation of the Mahratta dominion must ever be reckoned 
amongst the greater services rendered by the power of Britain 
to human happiness. 

The defensive treaty with the Nizam made it a matter of 

The Treaty ur g enc y with Lord Wellesley to bring the Peshwa 

of Bassein, within the British alliance. Sindia and Holkar 

were quarrelling for the control of the Court of 

Poona. In Oct. 1802, the Peshwa to save his life took refuge 

on board a vessel of the East India Company. On the last 

day of the year he signed the treaty of Bassein, by which he 

entered the system of defensive alliances whose purport was to 

erect England into the arbiter of peace and war and the 

guarantor of orderly rule throughout the Peninsula. 

The Peshwa was restored to his throne under the pro- 
tection of a British force, for the support of 
sindta and the which territories upon the Tapti and Nerbudda 
Rajah of were ce ded. Wellesley now found himself forced 

Berar, 1803. . ' . 

into war, first with Sindia and the Rajah of 
Berar, and later on with Holkar. The campaign of Sir Arthur 
Wellesley in the Deccan distinguished by the battles of Assaye 

(Sept. 1803) and Argaum (Nov.) was victoriously 
Laswarri ^803. concluded within six months. General Lake in 

Hindustan defeated the French sepoy force, 
entered Delhi, where he took the blind Moghul under British 
protection, captured Agra, Sindia's capital, and by the decisive 
victory of Laswarri (Nov. 1803) compelled Sindia to accept 
a subsidiary alliance. Sindia abandoned Delhi and all territory 
north of the Jumna, and his French corps was finally broken 
up. The Rajah of Berar ceded Orissa and accepted the 
British alliance. 

The results secured after four short months of warfare were 



1763 — 1805.] Mahratta War. 247 

profoundly significant. The Mogul represented the only legiti- 
mate power recognised throughout the Peninsula. 
Lord Wellesley had now secured that his au- th f* of 
thority should not be utilised in hostility to Eng- 
lish rule. In the next place, the last hope of French ambition 
in the Peninsula vanished with the overthrow of Sindia's 
European corps. Thirdly, the Mahratta power had been proved 
incapable of withstanding attack of an organized European 
army. Finally, in northern and central India, Great Britain 
was for the first time recognized as the supreme Power. 

Meanwhile Holkar, who had hitherto stood aside, now took 
the field on his own account. He was a skilful „. . . 

War with 

warrior of the true Mahratta type, distrusting Hoikar, 
infantry and artillery and relying entirely upon J 4 
that irregular horse by which the marauding race had spread 
their power over central India. The campaign of 1804 — 5 
was marked by serious British reverses due to British in- 
experience of traditional Mahratta warfare. The siege of 
Bhurtpore failed conspicuously. Delhi, however, was success- 
fully defended by its British garrison, but Holkar was still 
defying British arms when in 1805 Lord Wellesley was 
recalled, in a new fit of reaction against the policy of extension 
of British dominion. Holkar submitted a year later, and the 
Mahratta settlement effected by Lord Wellesley in 1802 — 3 
remained intact. 

The Marquis Wellesley ranks with Lord Dalhousie (1848 — 
56) as the greatest of British-Indian rulers. Not The 
only were the additions which he made to the Wellesley in 
Empire important in themselves, but the political n Ian Istory - 
methods by which he built up the British power have survived 
to our own day. To understand the significance of his 
measures, certain primary truths of native Indian polity must be 
carefully borne in mind. In the first place there condition 
was in India, at the end of the 18th century, no of Indian 
such thing as a truly independent native power. p0 ' 1C8 ' 



248 Wellesley and Native States. [CH. VII. 

Almost every state was nominally dependent on the Moghul : 
in reality each was at the mercy either of the Mahrattas or 
of foreign adventurers. Nor could the principal reigning 
princes claim a lawful title to their states; and they were 
often so weak and corrupt that without external aid they could 
not subsist at all. The idea of the good of their subjects, 
as a political principle, we may say with confidence, did not 
occur to any native Prince. The multifarious origin and 
creed of the races of British India is seldom adequately 
realised. The one uniting tie had been the Moghul empire, 
and Lord Wellesley consciously aimed at substituting for that 
now decrepit headship the rule of Great Britain. But, this 
policy once embarked upon, no limit to its extension could be 
reached, short of the great mountain chain which encloses the 
Peninsula. It is probable that Lord Wellesley himself foresaw 
some such goal as ultimately inevitable. 



249 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CANADA UNDER BRITISH RULE. 
1760 — 191 I. 

The administration of Canada passed into British hands 
from the moment of the capitulation of Montreal 
(Sept. 1760); General Amherst acting as mill- under military 
tary governor until the Peace. So conciliatory rule - I76o— 
were his methods that, when the treaty was 
formally concluded, it was possible to say that the Canadians 
dreaded nothing so much as a return to French dominion. 
There was no emigration of the inhabitants, who, to their 
surprise, found themselves undisturbed in their civil and 
religious rights. In 1763 the population, amounting to about 
65,000, was, with the exception of 200 settlers from New 
England, exclusively Catholic and of French origin, and was 
settled chiefly within a short distance of the St Lawrence. 
Westward of the river Ottawa the territory was abandoned to 
the Indians. The proclamation of 1763 established the colony 
of Quebec as a new and separate government ; a popular 
Assembly was already contemplated; pending its creation a 
Governor with an Advisory Council administered the country. 

Nova Scotia — the old French province of Acadia — was a 
distinct colony, backward and thinly peopled. . 

Halifax had been founded in 1749 by definite 
act of the Home Government and became the capital and a 
naval station of great importance. In 1755, owing to the 



250 Problems of Canadian Government, [ch. vili. 

refusal of the French settlers to take the oath of allegiance to 
the British Government, it was found necessary, in view of the 
critical condition of British rule in America, to deport a number 
of recusants to Canada and the English colonies. It cannot 
be disputed that the political activity of the Catholic clergy, 
stimulated from Quebec, rendered this harsh step unavoidable. 
Longfellow's well-known poem Evangeline entirely ignores the 
motives of an event unique in English colonial history. New- 
foundland was still merely a summer fishing station, with 
neither settled population nor permanent government. 

The problem of the government of Canada, which remained 
under semi-military rule until 1774, was new to 

Problem of _ ... , . ._ . . _ . , T 

Canadian British experience. Neither Jamaica nor New 

Government, Amsterdam — both colonies won by conquest — 

afforded any true parallel. For in both cases 
the old population was speedily equalled or outnumbered by 
settlers of British race. In the colony of Quebec there was 
but the slightest intermingling of strangers with the old French 
stock. The Ministry desired to treat Canada as a colony on 
lines familiar elsewhere on the American continent. Yet it 
was necessary to take security for allegiance to the British 
Crown from a people rendered hostile by circumstances, and 
alien in language, religion, law, and mode of life. The difficul- 
ties confronting the able men who fortunately piloted the colony 
through the first period of British connexion, Murray and 
Carleton, are easily described. 

The Catholic Church had, as we have seen, proved itself not 

a. The Ro- merely a religious but a political power in Canada. 

man Catholic During the long struggle it had been intensely 

anti-English, and it was inevitable that suspi- 
cion should remain as to the direction of its future influence. 

In the next place, the Canadians had had no 
training in experience of, and apparently no desire for, self- 

seif-govem- government, local or colonial, and the experiment 

of autonomous institutions seemed hazardous. 



! 760—191 1.] The Quebec Act. 251 

The use of the French language was universal and French law, 
both civil and criminal, was alone intelligible. 
The land system, resting on feudal tenure, differed tC n ur ea* W ' 
both from the small freehold of New England 
and the manor of Virginia. The New England immigrants, 
with their ingrained aversion to Roman Catholics, 
proposed institutions which should exclude all i m d ^i g ^ants. n 
but Protestants from political power, whereby 
400 Protestant new-comers would dictate laws to 80,000 dis- 
franchised settlers. The problem, already com- 
plex enough, was aggravated by the inveterate of Home 
jobbery of the Home Government, which Murray Government - 
denounced in scathing terms. Judges were appointed knowing 
neither the French language nor French law, and executive 
offices were given to ministerial supporters who promptly sold 
the posts for hard cash to deputies who were destitute of all 
qualification for the work they professed to do. A system of 
protected rapacity was thus let loose upon the colony. Fortu- 
nately in Murray and Carleton Canada had administrators, not 
only honest and capable, but with a veritable passion for good 
government. 

The second period of Canadian history begins with the 
Quebec Act of 1774. By this Act Roman 
Catholicism was recognised as the religion of the period of 
colony, and the parochial clergy were allowed diaf'ruie^the 
to "hold, receive and enjoy their accustomed Quebec Act, 
dues and rights, with respect to such persons X774 ' 
only as shall profess the said religion." In civil matters the 
existing French law was continued in force; criminal charges 
were to be decided by an English code. Colonial government 
was, as before, to be administered by a nominated Council. 
English opinion could not then rise to the idea of a legislative 
Assembly which must be, under the circumstances, exclusively 
Catholic England, as we know, admitted toleration in the 
colonies long in advance of its recognition at home ; but the 



252 The Loyalist Immigration. [ch. VIII, 

time was not yet ripe for so great a concession, which, indeed, 
no Minister would have dared propose. 

That the Quebec Act satisfied Canadian feeling is proved 
Canada and b ? the attitude of the colony to the revolted 
the American provinces in the War of Independence. In 
spite of the assiduous court paid to prominent 
colonists by Congress, and of the active alliance of Louis XVI, 
Canada held firmly aloof. If it refrained from active participa- 
tion across the border, at least it helped to defend the colony 
against American attack in 1776 — 7 and offered asylum to 
Loyalist refugees. The Puritan and Republican sentiments 
which inspired the American states found no sympathy in 
monarchical and Catholic Canada. Noblesse, clergy, peasantry 
and Indians agreed in abiding by the sovereignty of England. 
The bitterness of the colonial struggle led to a large emigra- 
tion of Loyalists, especially from the Middle and 
settlers in Southern states. In 1778 a large body of these 

Ontario, 1780— immigrants settled in Nova Scotia. During the 
next ten years a succession of settlers, im- 
poverished in means, yet admirable material for the making of 
a new country, took up areas of land in Upper Canada and so 
became the founders of the British province of Ontario. By 
1806 Canada and Nova Scotia had received not less than 80,000 
of such immigrants. Those who had abandoned their homes 
from loyalty to Great Britain during the course of the American 
war were allotted special grants of land and were to be distin- 
guished by the letters U. E. ('United Empire' loyalists), a 
badge of honour, then and afterwards highly prized by its 
recipients. Connected with the arrival of this influx of 
British population the district of New Brunswick was in 1784 
constituted a separate colony. 

The third stage in Canadian development was now reached. 

The third The colony had ceased to be the home of a 

period Th 79I ~ homogeneous nationality. The English element 

Canada Act. required not less consideration than the French, 



I7 6o— I9H-] Constitution of 1791. 253 

and the geographical limits of settlement marked out the 
policy to be pursued. By the Canada Act of separation 
1791 Upper Canada, with its special British of Ontario and 
characteristics, was separated from Quebec or Quc ec " 
Lower Canada. Self-government by means of elective as- 
semblies was introduced in each province. The colonial type 
of constitution was adhered to. The Legislative Council, 
appointed by the Crown, stood for the English House of Peers ; 
and the Assembly for the Commons. But, as in the old Ameri- 
can colonies, the constitution was that of England before the 
rise of Cabinet government and ministerial responsibility, and 
the executive was thus independent in a large degree of the 
Legislative body, and could remain in power at Modified 
the will of the Governor until the refusal of seif-govern- 
supplies brought about a deadlock. In other m 
words the two Canadian colonies had legislative powers but 
not responsible government: a distinction of the greatest 
importance in colonial history. 

The constitution of 179 1 was, however, the first step towards 
colonial autonomy. It preserved the rights previously conceded 
to the French population and placed the English settlers in an 
equal position with them. Upper Canada could thus protect 
its Protestant worship, support its clergy, and adopt a system 
of freehold land-tenure ; and this it proceeded to do. Lower 
Canada retained, with its French language, its own civil and 
religious institutions. England in this way recognized that 
Canada contained two nations, which could not as yet amalga- 
mate; and devised a constitution to meet their distinctive 
needs. 

For twenty years Canadian progress was not interrupted 
by political troubles. Ontario attracted settlers 
both from the United States and from Great Ontario. 
Britain. But Quebec was, until 1850, the more 
populous of the two provinces. The attack upon Canada by 
the United States in 181 2 was a war of aggression of which 



254 Canadian Expansion. [CH. VIII. 

the English Orders in Council (1807) were the nominal pre- 
text, but a desire to humiliate England the real 
can war of motive. The New England States, and instruct- 
ed opinion throughout the Republic generally, 
were, indeed, opposed to this diversion on behalf of Napoleon, 
which present-day historians in the United States find it 
hard to palliate. It cannot be denied that the immediate 
impulse to the war lay in the exigencies of the Presidential 
election of 181 2. Its undisguised object was the conquest of 
Canada: its result, the strengthening of the tie which bound 
the colony to Great Britain. For the French-Canadians had 
no sympathy either with the Revolution of 1789 or with the 
republican principles of their neighbours. They joined, there- 
fore, with energy in the defence of the colony. The brunt of 
the invasion, however, fell upon Upper Canada, where the old 
Loyalists offered a vigorous and triumphant resistance. The 
war ended in 18 14, leaving behind it a heritage of embittered 
feeling which has lasted till our own day. 

Notwithstanding, Canada grew apace. After the great war 

emigration was encouraged, and in the social 

of Canada, and economic distress that followed the Peace of 

1810—1840. ^j. c ana( j a was t h e c hief colonial outlet for 

the overflow of British population. The West was gradually 
opened up by aid of steam communications on the great water- 
ways. This was the period of important advances in engineer- 
ing and other public works, such as the Ottawa canal, of the 
founding of new industrial centres in the upper Province, of the 
first settlements in Manitoba, and of significant economic and 
educational reforms. 

During this period Canada entered upon another era of 
agitation which reached a climax in 1837. The 

discontent, causes were partly racial, partly constitutional. 

1820-1840. with the rapid increase of the English element 
in the population, Lower Canada became proportionately tena- 
cious of its racial privileges. Discontent, therefore, in Quebec, 



!76o — 191 1.] Lord Durham and Rebellion of 1837. 255 

which remained overwhelmingly French, turned upon the ques- 
tion of nationality, which engendered friction Racial 
between the English official element and the 
popular Assembly. In Upper Canada, the Clergy Reserves — 
extensive lands allotted to the support of the 
Anglican Church — were the prominent grievance. tion ° a " s 
But in both Provinces the measure of self-govern- 
ment accorded by the Constitution of 1791 had been for some 
years felt to be inadequate. As we saw, the nominees of the 
Governor constituted the Ministry and the Upper Chamber, 
and thus precluded direct popular control over the administra- 
tion. The Assembly could vote money but could not control 
its expenditure, whilst a group of Loyalist families contrived to 
monopolise official posts. The influence of the Reform agita- 
tion in England and the remarkable growth of the United 
States under republican institutions stimulated discontent in 
Upper Canada. In 1837 a movement in favour 
of independence was raised by a Scotchman l8 ~ ebelllon ' 
named Mackenzie, whilst in Lower Canada a 
revolt was openly led by Papineau, by whose name the rising 
is generally known. However, in the absence of a powerful 
rallying cry the rebellion was half-hearted, and, though sugges- 
tive of the American revolt of 1776, it gained very different 
support. The Home Government despatched 
Lord Durham, a prominent Liberal statesman, ham, High 
with full powers as High Commissioner to c . ommis " 

. . sioner, 1837. 

examine into the affairs of the Colony. His 
celebrated Report, a most significant document in English 
colonial history, pointed to racial feeling and constitutional 
grievances as the twin sources of discontent. He advised 
the political union of the two Canadas with one Legislature, 
and an executive Ministry responsible to it ; elective 
bodies for local affairs ; and, looking to a still broader 
union, a railway connecting Halifax with Quebec. Based 
upon this Report the Reunion Act was passed in 1840, 



256 The Canadian Confederation. [ch. vili. 

and under it Canada won, though not at once, that full 

measure of 'responsible government' which is the 
Act, i5> e . Um ° n characteristic feature of the greater English 

colonies of to-day. It is possibly the most 
important service which Canada has rendered to the Empire 

that from her constitutional struggles arose that 
Government.' f° rm °* complete self-government under which 

the unity of the Empire is reconciled with the 
practical independence of its daughter communities. 

From this time Canada was left to work out for itself its 
political balance of power. Under Lord Elgin (1847 — 1854) 
the question of the Church lands was solved by their surrender 
to local authorities for educational and social uses. Hence- 
forward the Church of England held the status of a voluntary 
Church, and the question of State-endowment of one Commu- 
nion was by the precedent of Canada settled in the negative for 

all the self-governing colonies. The operation 
of the New of the Reunion Act proved an admirable 
Constitution, and necessary training in mutual toleration 

and in united effort for the well-being of the 
colony. At the same time the growth of the neighbouring 
colonies in the East and the West pointed to federation, rather 
than union, as the ultimate solution of divergences due to race, 
history, interests and geographical position. The outcome of 
~,- ™ M tn i s conviction was the British North America 

The B. N. 

America Act, Act of 1 86 7, by which Ontario, Quebec, New 
I ^ > ' Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were formed into 

one Dominion. To this Federation were subsequently admitted 
Rupert's Land and Manitoba in 1870, British Columbia in 
187 1, and all other territories of British North America, except- 
ing Newfoundland, in 1880. Ottawa is the Federal capital. 
The constitution of the 'Dominion of Canada' provides for 
The a Federal Parliament, consisting of the King, 

Canadian through his representative, the Governor-General, 
the Senate, whose members are appointed by 



1 760— 1 9 1 1 .] The North- West. 257 

the Governor-General for life, and the House of Commons 
elected by the provinces. The Federal government is exer- 
cised by a Cabinet, chosen by the Governor-General, just 
as the British Ministry is selected by the Sovereign. Under 
the cognisance of Parliament and the Admini- 
stration come the questions common to all the pJrUamentf 81 
Provinces — Public Debt, Taxation, Trade, De- 
ference, Currency, Postal Service, Native (Indian) Affairs, which 
fall under the control of permanent Departments of State as in 
England ; whilst to each Province are delegated The Provin . 
under Federal control specified legislative and ciai Pariia- 
executive powers in local matters, so that each men 9 ' 
has its own Parliament, Ministry and permanent officials. 
The adjustment of the relations of the separate provincial 
administrations, which are not uniform, with the Federal 
government involved at the outset careful handling, as was 
proved by the rebellion of Louis Riel (1870) on the incorpo- 
ration of Manitoba. Just as Canada led the way in formulating 
the principle of responsible governments, so too Australia has 
applied, from the example of the Dominion, the federal idea to 
the solution of her own special problems. 

The territorial growth of the British American colonies 
subsequent to 1783 requires notice here. Canada 
was presumed to extend to the region of the of Canadian 
great lakes and the longitude of the Mississippi. Settlement - 
What lay to the west of such an imaginary line was out of 
colonial ken. The southern boundary of Canada „,. , 

... ' The boun- 

was, except where it impinged upon the state of dary to the 
Maine, determined without difficulty at the peace South - 
of 1783. The frontier of Maine was settled in 1842, and by 
the treaties of 1818 and 1846, the 49th parallel of latitude was 
accepted as the boundary from Lake Superior to the Pacific. 
On the north-west of Canada lay the vaguely H . 
defined territory of the Hudson Bay charter, Bay Territory. 



17 



258 The Hudson s Bay Company. [CH. VIII. 

destitute of settlement, but growing in importance as a fur- 
hunting reserve. 

The work of exploration, checked by the English conquest 
^ , . of Canada, was resumed by the Scotch settler 

Exploration : , t J 

the North- Mackenzie, who, in 1798, started from Lake 

Athabasca and pursued the course of the great 
river which bears his name to its outlet in the Polar Sea. The 
same intrepid pioneer three years later ascended the Peace 
River to its source in the Rocky Mountains, crossed the range, 
and descended to the Pacific. That hitherto 
n Vlt K»^, unknown coast-region had been observed in 

Coast, 179° — 2. D 

1790 by Lieutenant Vancouver, in an endeavour 

to find the North-West Passage from the side of Behring's 

Straits. The early decades of the 19th century were marked 

by much activity in the exploration of the Polar Sea and the 

, „ coast-line west of Hudson's Bay. But, heroic as 

The Polar Sea. . -,!•-., • 

were the exertions of Parry, Franklin, and their 
fellow-discoverers, they had little influence upon Canadian 
settlement. 

The origin of the Hudson's Bay Company has been already 

related (p. 161). Like other exclusive trading 
Hudson's Bay bodies it had aroused the opposition of adven- 
Co - and turers who found themselves shut out from the 

Canada. 

area of its operations. The North-West Com- 
pany of Montreal, its most powerful rival, carried on a like 
industry in the region stretching westwards to the Rocky 
Mountains. Within the whole of this area no settlement 
. existed until, in 181 2, a Highland colony was 

opened up, led by Earl Selkirk to the Red River, the 
germ of the later province of Manitoba. This 
early attempt, however, proved a failure. In 1838 a mono- 
poly of all the lands lying north of the 
Bay Co. United States and west of Lake Winnipeg was 

absorbs the acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company, which 
west, 1838. now absorbed its Montreal competitor. But the 



1760 — 19 11 -] British Columbia. 259 

gold discoveries of 1858 led to the incorporation of British 
Columbia as a separate colony, to which Vancouver Island was 
added in 1866. The resumption of the entire British 
territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company ^"""ated, 
was now only a question of time. The directors 1858. 
still opposed colonization, desiring to keep their possession as 
a vast fur-trading preserve. But the energy of the Canadians, 
backed by a steady stream of new settlers, was not to be 
repressed by a barrier erected by a London trading company, 
the absorption of which was essential to the development of 
the Dominion. In 1869, therefore, the landed rights of the 
Proprietors, subject to the allotment to the Company of certain 
specified areas, were purchased by the Federal government. 
The transfer of the administration, and the consequent new 
surveys of territory provoked suspicion amongst the half-breeds 
of the Red River district, which led in 1870 to a rising headed 
by a French Canadian, Louis Riel, and readily suppressed by 
Sir Garnet Wolseley. In the next year British Columbia 
entered the Federation under promise of the construction of 
a trans-continental railway and of the grant of 'responsible' 
parliamentary government for the new Province. Prince Ed- 
ward Island acceded in 1873. The provision of 'Indian 
reserves' continued the historic policy of the _. 

r J Expansion 

Crown towards the Indian tribes, who were thus of the 

secured from extinction. The steady pressure of 
population towards the West involved the erection in 1880 of 
the North- West Territories as a separate Government, with a 
capital at Regina, which comprised the entire area of British 
North America not included within the fully-organised ' Pro- 
vinces,' Newfoundland remaining an isolated colony. At 
subsequent dates the N.-W. Territories have been divided 
into Districts. Yukon (the capital of which is Dawson City) 
in the extreme north-west was constituted a separate 'Territory' 
in 1898 with direct representation in the parliament of the 
Dominion. The fortunes of this great sub-arctic area are 

17 — 2 



260 Canadian Progress. [ch. viri. 

bound up with the permanence of its gold-mining industry. 
Out of the region lying between the frontier line of the United 
States and Lat. 6o°, and between Manitoba on the east and 
the border of British Columbia on the west, four ' Districts ' 
were erected in 1882 ; and these in 1905 were consolidated 
into the two Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, which 
rank in status with the original units of the Dominion. The 
political weight of the more recently settled Provinces tends to 
increase with their rapidly-growing population, as adjustment 
of representation is made automatically upon the results of 
each decennial census. 

The Canadian Dominion has for 45 years given a very 
successful example of the working of a Federal constitu- 

n dia t * on " ^ ^ tne ^ oca ^ interests of the differing 

progress, regions of this vast area have been safeguarded. 

Political life has been vigorous and has rarely 
turned upon racial divisions. The French Canadians have 
been fortunate in their leaders, the late premier of the 
Dominion cabinet, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, taking rank amongst 
the foremost statesmen in the service of the Crown. The 
internal freedom of Canada is complete, and the relations 
between the Mother country and her leading Colony have 
been most harmonious. In all matters involving the relations 
of Canada with foreign states, customs tariffs alone excepted, 
negotiations are conducted and agreements made by the 
Imperial government acting in the name of the Crown. But 
in every question directly affecting the Dominion such as 
those concerning fishery rights, disputed boundaries, &c, the 
colonial administration is carefully consulted and the action of 
the Foreign Office represents the joint opinion of the Home 
and the Dominion authorities. The determination to strengthen 
the tie between the Mother country and her premier colony has 
grown with the development of the Dominion, and the fears 
guardedly expressed in England in 1867 lest the Act of Con- 
federation should prove a first step towards separation have 
been signally falsified. 



1760 — 19 11 -] Canadian Progress. 261 

Since the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railroad to 
through traffic in 1886 the progress of the Dominion has 
been general. But since 1896 the growth of agriculture, 
especially in the North-West, of manufactures in the older 
provinces, and notably in southern Ontario, of mining, fruit- 
growing and lumber-felling in British Columbia, has stimulated 
immigration and the inflow of capital not only from Britain 
but from the United States. For the profits of wheat-growing 
in the three north-western Provinces attract large numbers 
of experienced farmers from the neighbouring states of the 
American Union. The same cause is diverting to Canada 
a large part of the constant stream of Scandinavian emigration. 
But the British immigrant is still the most numerous. All 
alike, it is affirmed, quickly identify themselves with their new 
home and become loyal Canadians. The area available for 
agricultural settlement is not yet ascertained. But it may be 
safely said that it amounts to at least ten times that already 
cultivated. Although the fiscal system of the Dominion has 
since 1879 Deen based upon Protection the Liberal adminis- 
tration in 1897 accorded, without asking for any reciprocal 
privileges, preferential treatment to the products of the Mother 
country. But since that time a growing sense of the com- 
munity of trading interests in Canada and the United States 
has brought into prominence the principle of commercial 
Reciprocity, by which is meant that the interchange of the 
products of the two countries shall be freed from customs 
dues so far as the fiscal or political circumstances of either 
party may allow. A provisional agreement was concluded at 
Washington in January 191 1 (to which the Home Govern- 
ment, though approving, was not a party) by which agricultural 
products should cease to be chargeable with duties on crossing 
the frontier and certain classes of manufactured goods admitted 
at the lowest rates. The policy embodied in the agreement 
was however decisively rejected by the electorate of the 
Dominion in the following September. 



262 Canadian Progress. [CH. VIII. 

The population of the Dominion ascertained by the Census 
of that year amounted to about 8,000,000 as against 5,371,000 
in 1901. The natural increase is proportionally largest in 
French Canada; in the Maritime (Eastern) Provinces the rate of 
growth is relatively slight. In the North-West and in British 
Columbia it compares with the phenomenal rise which marked 
the western" states of the American Union. In Saskatchewan 
the Census of 1901 showed a population of 91,500; in 1906 
this had grown to 257,750; in 1911 to 800,000. In a very 
short time two additional through railroads will connect the 
Pacific coast with the St Lawrence, whilst the Hudson Bay 
roads, under construction and projected, with their operations 
centring in Prince Albert, will provide further outlets for the 
produce of the agriculture of the North-West It is a reason- 
able claim that Canada before many decades are passed will 
be able to provide Great Britain with all the imported food 
she needs, tropical produce alone excepted. 



263 



CHAPTER IX. 

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. 
1788 — 191 I. 

The legend of a great southern continent, Terra Australis, 
such as we see it marked on Frobisher's map, 
recurs frequently in the geographical records of voyages to 
the 1 6th century. But China, the Indies, and g"ag ralian 
the North-West Passage were too attractive to 
European navigators to leave room for attempts at systematic 
exploration of that mysterious region. In the first years of the 
17th century Luis De Torres, a Spanish pilot, discovered the 
Strait called after his name, and sighted, if he did not touch, its 
southern shore at the point of Cape York. The Dutch now 
took up the work of discovery. Possibly in 1606, certainly in 
16 1 6, the North-western coast of Australia was made by vessels 
sailing east from Bantam ; and not a few Dutch names on that 
side of the island seem to date from the first 40 years of the 
17th century. 

In 1642 a Dutch commander, Abel Tasman, explored the 
coast-line of the south-eastern region, which he 
called, after the governor of the Indies, Van l6 £ asmaD ' 
Dieman's Land, though its island character 
was not known for another 150 years. He then discovered 
New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, and other Pacific groups. 
By right of discovery the Dutch called the great island New 
Holland, but they made no attempt at occupation. The first 



264 The Australian Colonies. [en. IX. 

English adventurer who devoted himself to Southern discovery 

was William Dampier, a reckless, semi-piratical 
i6? ampiei " sailor, who visited New Holland in 1689, and 

again, in the employ of the Admiralty, 10 years 
later. But the first organised exploration of the South Pacific 

was the work of Captain Cook, who, between 
cook, 1768 j^gg — 1779, made three voyages into Australian 

waters. In 1769 he determined the general out- 
line of New Zealand; passing thence to the eastern coast of 
New Holland, he surveyed it from the neighbourhood of 
Sydney harbour northwards to Torres Strait. There in 1770 
he proclaimed the British ownership of the Eastern sea-board 
under the title of New South Wales. His later voyages added 
materially to English knowledge of the region so far as it was 
immediately accessible to navigators. 

The Aborigines of Australia were found to be a barbarous 

race with no apparent capacity for civilisation. 
Aborigines. They seem to have been thinly scattered over 

the continent at the time of its first exploration. 
Estimated now at less than 100,000 in number, they are 
steadily disappearing before the white man. Unlike the natives 
of North America or South Africa, they have not counted as a 
factor in the development of the colony. The Maoris of New 
Zealand, on the other hand, are a vigorous race, of fine physique 
and warlike instinct. The first European visitors found them 
organised in communities, and possessed of a knowledge of 
agriculture and navigation. They inhabit mainly the North 
Island, and in the history of New Zealand have been a factor 
of decisive importance. 

The close of the American war in 1783 had left behind it 

a feeling of despair upon the subject of the 
tio r n ransporta " colonial Empire. It was almost forgotten that 

England had other possessions besides those 
just lost, and there was certainly no popular interest in adding 
to them. Captain Cook's discoveries might probably have been 




To /ace p. 



Camb.Univ.Press 



—zzrnwr--_ 
V 




The States of the Commonwealth of Australia. 



1788— 191 1.] Early History of N. S. Wales. 265 

ignored by English statesmen, and New Holland might have 
passed through a stage — a short one — of French ownership, 
but for one pressing necessity. The American colonies down 
to 1776 had, as part of their labour system, absorbed an annual 
supply of convicts. By 1783 the closing of this convenient 
resource began to be seriously felt by the English Government. 
In that year a project to despatch an expedition of settlement 
to New South Wales, in order to make good Cook's proclama- 
tion by actual occupation, was met by the Secretary of State 
with the proposal to unite with it the scheme of a convict 
station. It was not until May, 1787, that the first expedition 
for the colonisation of Australia set sail, Captain Phillip, R.N., 
was in command, as Governor, of 750 convicts, under the 
guard of a detachment of marines, which latter with their 
wives constituted the nucleus of free settlers. In January, 1788, 
Botany Bay was reached and the colonisation of Australia 
begun. Governor Phillip, however, promptly abandoned his 
first landing-place for one more suitable in the magnificent 
harbour a few miles to the north, which Cook had called Port 
Jackson. The site chosen for the settlement 

J , Convicts at 

took its name from the Secretary of State, Lord Sydney Cove, 
Sydney. Six days after Captain Phillip's arrival, I7 " 
two vessels of the French navy appeared off the coast in course 
of a voyage of discovery in the South Seas. England, perhaps, 
acquired Australia by one week's priority. 

Governor Phillip was instructed to administer the territory 
of New South Wales, denned as including the 
Eastern coast of Australia from Cape York, in w N f w . South 

Wales in 1790. 

the north, to the extreme point of Tasmania in 
the south; its western boundary being constituted by the 
135th degree of east longitude. The Pacific Islands lying 
within the extreme latitudes of the colony were to be included. 
Meantime effective settlement was limited to a few acres on 
the shore of Sydney Cove, and Norfolk and Lord Howe 
Islands occupied by Phillip in 1788. 



266 The Australian Colonies. [CH. IX. 

The convict settlement in Sydney Cove was extended by 
the occupation of rich agricultural lands 15 and 20 miles 
distant from Port Jackson. In this way the colony, within two 
or three years, was able to supply its own means of subsistence. 
Prisoners on expiry of their sentence were released from forced 
labour and received grants of land. Free settlers, mainly 
discharged soldiers already in the colony, formed a more 
stable population. Sheep and cattle were successfully accli- 
matised ; and excesses of the ex-convicts and occasional affrays 
with the blacks, were, under the firm and sagacious rule of 
Phillip, the only drawbacks to the orderly progress of the new 
colony. 

For the first 30 years of its existence New South Wales 

f was ^ministered by military rule. The chief 

military rule, function of the Governor, during this period, was 

178 1823. t ^ e contro i f jhg conv } c t population. The 

Government held itself responsible for the entire maintenance 
of the colony, in which the free settlers continued for some 
years to be a subordinate element. The first administrator 
who took a wider view of the destiny of New South Wales was 
Governor Macquarrie (1815 — 1821). During his term of 
office emigration was liberally assisted from the proceeds of 
land-sales. Large areas of land on the west side of the Blue 
Mountains, "Bathurst Plains," were opened up to pastoral 
settlement, carrying a quarter of a million of sheep. The 
population at his departure was upwards of 30,000, and all the 
elements of a vigorous progressive colony were secured. The 

free emigrants had now become strong enough 
frer C settfers. f to determine the character and development of 

the enterprise. The industrial crisis in England 
stimulated emigration, though Australia naturally benefited less 
by the movement than did the more accessible colony of 
Canada. The criminal taint, too, proved no doubt a deterrent. 
It was evidence of the reviving faith in the colonial function of 
England that the mother country was willing to expend a sum 



1788 — 191 1] Early History of N. S. Wales. 267 

amounting from first to last to not less than ;£i 0,000,000 

sterling, in bringing the colony to the self-supporting stage, 

which was not reached during this period. Coal had been 

discovered at Newcastle in workable quantity. 

n } Convicts m 

Tasmania had been settled, at Hobart and Tasmania, 
Launceston; Moreton Bay, the nucleus of l8 ° 4 " 
Queensland, explored; and the natural advantages of Port 
Phillip, the harbour of the later city of Melbourne, had been 
discovered. A supreme Court, determining civil cases, began 
to sit in 1 81 7, under the presidency of a judge of distinction, 
appointed by the Crown. 

The second period in the development of New South 
Wales extends from the departure of Governor 
Macquarrie to the year 1842. The 20 years Period of 

.,.,., ,. . , expansion. 

comprised within these limits are marked by 
those remarkable journeys of discovery which revealed the 
main characteristics of the eastern half of the Australian con- 
tinent. They include, also, the beginnings of self-government 
in the colony, the agitation of the question of the colonial 
lands, and the cessation of the convict system. The progress 
of settlement in New South Wales was not caused, as in New 
England or Ontario, by steady pressure of population upon 
the wilderness. The ranges of hills which, from the western 
border of Victoria to northern Queensland, skirt the coast of 
Australia, served as a barrier to the earlier settlers, which could 
only be surmounted at certain points. The dis- 
covery of these gaps in the ridge led at once to districtsTopen- 
the opening up of vast areas of open down on e g out « l8l 3— 
the western slope of the water-shed where were 
the gathering-grounds of the upper tributaries of the Murray. 
Such downs were the Bathurst Plains, to which a track 
was made through the Blue Mountains in 18 15, the 
Liverpool Plains, some 200 miles to the north, the Darling 
Downs at the back of Brisbane, whilst farther south, on the 
upper waters of the Murrumbidgee, are the Monaroo Downs. 



268 The Australian Colonies. [CH. IX. 

The discovery of these pastoral districts falls between the 

years 1813 and 1827. It was followed, very shortly after, by 

the more venturesome explorations of Sturt, 

ofriver°system wno > between the years 1826 — 31, followed the 

of the Murray, CO urse of the Murray and its great tributaries 
1826— 1831. . ' ° 

the Darling and the Murrumbidgee. By this 

time (1831) the great river system of Southern Australia had 

been fairly grasped. The mountain-ridge itself was mapped 

by Sir Thomas Mitchell, who was the first to realise the natural 

features and marvellous promise of the district soon to be 

incorporated as Victoria. In 1840 Gipps Land, 
traversed 1 ^ e south-eastern plain-land of the continent, 

was traversed, and, the most remarkable venture 
hitherto accomplished, a cross-country route from Sydney to 
St Vincent Gulf was effected by that intrepid pioneer of 
Australian discovery, Edward John Eyre. 

The contrasts presented by the pioneer work of Australian 

settlement and that of New England or South 
isticsofAus- Africa in their early days are obvious. The 
traiian expan- Australian explorer had not to reckon with 

sum. . * . . 

either European rivals or vigorous native tribes. 
The natural features — once the comparatively narrow forest- 
belt was passed — offered no obstacle. The slow, laborious 
work of clearing the primitive wood-land, characteristic of 
Virginia or Massachusetts, was unknown. The one great 
hindrance to discovery and to settlement alike has been the 
recurrent drought. 

It was inevitable that with the increase of population and 

under the prospect of indefinite expansion of the 
under Gover- colony its purely military administration would 
Advfsory not * on S suffice- The Governor, by enactment 

Council, 1823— of 1823, was instructed to associate with himself 

a consultative Council. At first this body con- 
sisted only of executive officials who were appointed by the 
Secretary of State in London. Non-official members were 



1788 — 19 11 -] Australian Exploration. 269 

added by degrees, and after 1830 the Legislative Council began 
to exercise an important influence upon colonial affairs. In 
matters of executive administration the Governor retained 
much of his autocratic authority down to the abolition of 
transportation (1840). There was thus no elective element in 
the Administration during this period, but colonial opinion was 
consulted through the non-official members of the Council. 
New South Wales, in fact, was, up to 1842, a Crown 
colony in a strict sense. The same type of administration 
was adopted in Tasmania, in Western Australia, and in South 
Australia. 

These three colonies entered upon their existence during 
this period. Tasmania had been occupied in 
the first instance by detachments of convicts, a separate 
who for some years were a source of great ° ony * x ia ' 
anxiety. Free settlers began to arrive about 18 10. Ten years 
later the island had an English population of 6,000. Sheep 
had been successfully acclimatised and wool was already 
exported. But relapsed convicts took to bush-ranging, pro- 
voked fierce native outbreaks and hindered settlement. Under 
the strong rule of Governor Arthur order was rigorously main- 
tained, aborigines were deported, and large areas of land taken 
up by English companies. The convict system first provoked 
opposition in Tasmania, where its evil effects were most 
grievously felt. But the desired end was not obtained until 
X 8S3, by which time Tasmania was ready to receive its full 
status of a self-governing colony. 

If we disregard two abortive attempts to establish a convict 
settlement, Victoria dates from the years 1834-5. 
In these years independent settlements were rt^'. 010 " 3 ' 
made, one in Port Phillip Bay, on the site of 
Melbourne, another 200 miles farther west. The Government 
of New South Wales administered them by officials sent from 
Sydney in 1836 ; in the following year Melbourne was laid 
out as the chief port of the colony, and in 1842 received its 



270 The Australian Colonies. [CH. IX. 

municipal charter. The colony of Port Phillip, as it was still 
called, attracted settlers, from Sydney and from home, by virtue 
of its fine pastoral areas, Gipps Land being at once recognised 
as the richest agricultural region yet discovered in Australia. 
Already by 1842 the colonists of Port Phillip were agitating 
for incorporation as a separate colony. 

Western Australia was the goal of a direct expedition from 
London in 1829. Settlements were made upon 

i£' AUStraHa ' the Swan River at Perth and Freemantle. The 
original enthusiasm, stimulated by the advo- 
cates of systematic colonisation at home, gave way, in the 
usual course, to a period of depression, but there was much 
good material in the settlement; wheat-growing and sheep- 
farming were the two staple occupations, for as yet the special 
wealth of the colony — its hard timber and its gold deposits — 
were unavailable to enterprise. By 1840 the population, en- 
tirely of free settlers, amounted to 2,300, and the progress of 
the settlement, though slow, was sound and promising. The 
administration was that of Governor and Council as developed 
in New South Wales. 

The settlement of South Australia was another instance of 

a colony directly initiated from England under 

^s. Australia, ^ i m p U i se f fa e emigration movement of 

Gibbon Wakefield. The intention of the pro- 
moters was to establish a self-contained community administered 
by the Crown, from the outset dissociated from the convict 
system. Organised in terms of a statute of 1834, the first 
expedition reached St Vincent Gulf in 1836. Adelaide was 
chosen as the place of settlement. Surveys disclosed large tracts 
of good agricultural land ; cattle were found to thrive ; settlers 
swarmed to the new Colony, which after the arrival of Captain 
George Grey as Governor in 1841 was firmly established. In 
1842 the cultivated area reached 20,000 acres, and the popu- 
lation 17,000 souls. The famous copper deposits had just 
been discovered. The Legislative Council, of eight members, 



1788 — 19 11 -] Australian Self -government. 271 

which advised the Governor, was avowedly a temporary device 
pending the grant of an elective constitution. 

Queensland had a dual origin. In 1826 Brisbane, on 
Moreton Bay, was built as a convict station. 
Free settlement was forbidden, and Moreton l8 ? 6 ueensland ' 
Bay was thus closed to colonisation. But the 
true history of Queensland dates from the gradual advance of 
the great sheep-farmers or ' squatters ' along the western slope 
of the mountain range. When the penal settlement at Brisbane 
was abandoned in 1840, the settlers of Darling Downs found 
their natural access to the sea at Moreton Bay, and from this 
time we may date the beginnings of the squatter community 
which ultimately became the colony of Queensland. 

The example of Canada, which substantially acquired a 
self-governing constitution in 1841, could not 
be without its effect upon Australian politics, self-govern- 
England was now committed to a policy of ™ ent « l84a ~~ 
colonial self-government. As regards Australia, 
it was evident that free political life was not consistent with the 
use of the colonies as convict settlements. The abolition of 
transportation to New South Wales (1840), to Queensland 
(1849), and to Tasmania (1853), was a necessary preliminary 
to the grant of responsible government. In 1842 the elective 
element was first introduced into New South Wales by the 
creation of an enlarged Legislative Council, two-thirds of 
which was to be directly elected by the colonists. Although 
a very modest instalment, it gave the politicians of the colony 
a schooling in a modified form of representative government, 
without throwing upon them the full responsibilities of a 
Cabinet system. For the present, customs revenue and 
the proceeds of the sale of lands were reserved from local 
control. The full grant of responsible government was due, 
not to internal agitation, as in the case of Canada, but to the 
deliberate conviction shared by English, not less than by 
colonial, politicians of all parties, that only thus could the 



272 The Australian Colonies,. [ch. ix. 

needs of the prosperous English communities of Australia be 
adequately met. It must, then, be borne in mind that the 
peculiarly British method of reconciling colonial loyalty with 
colonial elasticity was the product of the experiences of years 
1837 — 53 in the Canadian and Australian communities. It is 
of not less importance to note that this concession of full 
autonomy was never made into a party question by statesmen 
at home. 

The immediate impulse to the next stage of Australian 
The Gold development was afforded by the gold discoveries 
discoveries, of 1 849 — 1 85 1. The population of Victoria in 
1 49— 5I " 1850 was just 70,000, five years later it had 

passed 300,000. In New South Wales Bathurst was the mining- 
centre. Such was the excitement that public officials threw up 
their posts, crews deserted, and the colonies of Tasmania and 
South Australia were abandoned by their male population, 
who swarmed to " El Dorado " of their more fortunate neigh- 
victona a ^ours. Victoria had entered upon her separate 
separate ' existence as a colony in 185 1, and the admini- 
co ony, 1 51. s tration was unable to cope with the problem so 
suddenly presented to it. Mining licences and land tenures 
led to disputes, riots, and bloodshed. The necessity for new 
administrative institutions was urgent. Parliament at home 
had given authority to the colonies to submit for approval of 
the Crown drafts of such Constitutions as they might desire 
to establish. Before the end of 1854 the four 
Government organised colonies, New South Wales, Victoria, 
established, South Australia, and Tasmania, were empowered 
to put the new institutions into force. The 
constitutions thus prepared varied somewhat in detail, but were 
alike in creating an Upper and a Lower Chamber, in establish- 
ing a broad franchise, and in adopting a method of executive 
government intended to be identical with that of the English 
Cabinet. Entire control of customs duties, land revenue, and 
of mining rights, was vested in the Legislature. The free trade 



1788 — 19 11 *] Responsible Government. 273 

measures of 1846 had rendered interference of the mother 
country with colonial commerce out of the question; it was 
enough to secure by statute that no exceptional or 'differen- 
tial' duties should be levied in colonial ports upon imports 
from home. 

Since the period of constitutional reforms the most im- 
portant events in the history of Australia have been the 
separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859, 
with the coincident gifts of responsible rule, and the much later 
attainment of colonial manhood by West Australia. The latter 
colony, cut off from its sister communities by a broad belt of 
desert, pursued a line of development of its own. In 1849, 
when other colonies were shaking themselves free from the 
convict system, the Swan River squatters invited the Home 
Government to supply their estates with criminal labour. But 
there, too, transportation was entirely abolished in 1865; a 
Representative Council was granted in 1870, but responsible 
government of the full type was not attained until 1890. 

Under* self-governing institutions Australia continued her 
career of rapid and somewhat uneventful progress. The type 
of her civilisation was practically fixed 40 years ago. Her 
three industries, pastoral, agricultural, and mining, were already 
firmly established. Her population, including that of New 
Zealand, has always been more purely British in origin than 
that of any other English possession : of the white inhabitants 
95 per cent, are of British blood. Australia possesses in her 
ocean frontier a freedom from external dangers, and a natural 
tie of unity, which is enforced by the fact that in creed and in 
speech she is one also. Her settlements however are diverse 
in their history, and are not all contiguous. The climate again 
is marked by the striking difference which distinguishes Northern 
Queensland from Tasmania. A determined effort is being 
made to attract an increasing number of English settlers; 
and the continuance of vast pastoral ownerships is being 
discouraged to facilitate closer settlement. 

W. E. l8 



274 The Commonwealth of Australia. [CH. IX. 

The conviction that a united government which should do 
for Australia what the Constitution of 1867 has 
constitution, done for Canada was of slow growth. Histori- 
19 °°' cally, perhaps, the idea is of earlier date, as in 

1849 a project for Australian federation was mooted in the 
British Parliament. The example of British North America 
did not materially influence popular opinion, which was not 
roused to action until the neglect of Great Britain (1883) to 
prevent the acquisition of part of New Guinea by Germany 
brought the federal idea within the range of practical politics. 
Conferences were held, at which New Zealand and Fiji were 
represented; and in T884 a draft scheme was sent home. But 
what enthusiasm there was died down for the time. In 1891 
the various Colonial parliaments of Australia sent delegates to 
a Convention which sketched out a bill ; this was followed by 
long and close consideration by statesmen in each colony, and 
in 1898 a Constitution was drawn out, and submitted to direct 
vote of the electorates. This being adopted by the several 
colonies was sent to England and by act of the Imperial 
Parliament (1900) became law. 

New Zealand is not included in the Federation, though 
Tasmania is. The motives to the policy which found expression 
in the Federal unity of Australia were based on grounds both of 
reason and of sentiment. It was seen to be a clear gain that 
inter-colonial trade should be relieved of customs-tariffs : that 
a common railway, irrigation, land, and native policy should 
be adopted ; that foreign labour questions and trade disputes 
should be jointly determined ; that a High Court for Australia 
should be set up ; that Federal borrowings would be cheaper 
than separate Colonial loans. But broader issues were felt to 
be involved in the near future of Australia. The entry of 
European nations into the field of colonial expansion, the 
action of Germany in New Guinea (1883), South Africa (1884 
and 1896) and Samoa (1899); the possibility that between the 
old alternatives of union with Great Britain or independence 



1788 — 19 11 -] The Commonwealth of Australia. 275 

there might arise a third, viz. enforced subjection to another 
European power; the whole question of the development of 
the Pacific — these strengthened the arguments drawn from 
direct internal advantage. And beyond this was the fact that 
Australia was now grown up; strong, self-conscious, and 
ambitious; with a population, largely of a fine type, of 
4,000,000, with the optimism and self-confidence of an en- 
ergetic and youthful nation. The first Federal Parliament 
was opened by the Prince of Wales on Jan. 1, 1901. 

The Federal Constitution does not follow the Canadian 
precedent in the important matter of its relation to the separate 
States. In Canada the provincial governments exercise certain 
powers, specifically assigned by the Act of 1867 ; in Australia, 
the states constituting the Federation have allotted certain 
specifically enumerated powers to the Federal government 
which they set up by the Act of 1900*. In the case of both 
Federations a Cabinet on the British model, responsible to the 
Parliament, a Governor General representing the Crown, two 
Houses (in Australia the Upper House or Senate is elected by 
the several States) are provided and the veto of the Crown 
over legislation recognised. Special powers are vested in the 

* The powers of the Commonwealth Parliament cover the regulation 
of trade and commerce with other countries and among the States ; 
bounties on the production or export of goods, but so that such bounties 
shall be uniform throughout the Commonwealth ; quarantine ; currency, 
coinage, and legal tender ; weights and measures ; copyrights, patents of 
inventions and designs and trade marks ; naturalization and aliens ; 
marriage ; divorce and matrimonial causes, and in relation thereto parental 
rights and the custody and guardianship of infants ; invalid and old-age 
pensions ; the admission and control of the people of any race other than 
the aboriginal race in any State for whom it is deemed necessary to make 
special laws; immigration and emigration; the influx of criminals ; external 
affairs. 

The Parliament is also directed to fix the seat of government subject to 
the limitation that it must (i) be situate in New South Wales and (a) be 
distant at least 100 miles from Sydney. A site has been fixed upon in 
Murray county, in the hills south-west of Sydney. 



276 The Commonwealth of Australia. [CH. IX. 

House of Representatives in respect of Finance; otherwise 
joint consent of both Houses is necessary to enactment of 
any Bill. But in some important respects, in connection with 
the right of appeal to the Crown and the powers to amend 
the constitution, the Australian Federation implies a less close 
dependence upon the Mother country than that of British 
North America. 

The political unification of the Commonwealth brought in 
its train the further question of national defence. Down to 
the close of the nineteenth century the Colonies had been 
content to rely upon the capacity of the Mother country to 
provide for their external security. The growing importance 
of other European fleets and the stirrings of German colonial 
ambitions compelled the i^ustralasian colonies in particular to 
realise their obligation to the joint task of imperial defence. 
Sydney is now a naval station of the first class. In 1903 a 
naval agreement was reached, to which New Zealand also is 
a party j and an Australasian fleet is now in process of 
creation. It will serve as one of the three units of the 
British Fleet in Eastern waters (the India and China fleets 
forming the other two). All three are under the control of 
the Admiralty in war; in peace the Commonwealth administers 
its own unit, and is responsible for the duty of training and 
manning. The Military Defence Acts of the Commonwealth 
and of New Zealand, passed between 1903 and 19 10, impose 
universal military training beginning at the 12 th year of age 
and ceasing at the age of 26. It is expected to provide in 
this way defensive forces equal to 100,000 men on peace 
footing. It should be remembered that by the Papua Act 
of 1905 the Federal Government of Australia took over the 
control of British New Guinea, now known as Papua Territory, 
and has thereby become the immediate neighbour of German 
and Dutch possessions. The trade of the Territory is almost 
exclusively with Australia. 



1788 — 1 9 1 1 •] New Zealand. 277 

New Zealand. 

The history of New Zealand is throughout independent of 
that of Australia. The beginnings of an English connexion in 
the islands may be said to date from the year 1817, when the 
Governor of New South Wales was authorised to exercise 
police jurisdiction over the casual and disorderly settlers — 
Pacific sailors and traders — who frequented the N . 

bays of the North Island. Sovereignty, however, proclaimed 
was expressly disclaimed. During the years 1825 a co ony * 1 39 " 
— 35, schemes of colonisation were much debated in England, 
and New Zealand seemed to offer favourable prospects of 
settlement. Reluctance to extend Imperial responsibilities had 
weakened with the success of Australia, and in 1839 New Zea- 
land was annexed by proclamation of the Governor of New 
South Wales. Captain Hobson, appointed to take charge of 
the new colony, with great ability won over the Maoris of the 
North Island to acknowledge British sovereignty and protec- 
tion in the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). This Treat f 
treaty between Great Britain and the Maori Waitangi, 
people gives the clue to the history of New x 4 °" 
Zealand to the close of the period included in this chapter. 
Like those of South Africa, but unlike those of Canada or 
Australia, the aborigines of New Zealand have played a con- 
spicuous part in determining the fortunes of the colony ; and, 
as in the case of the Kaffir tribes, so with the Maoris of North 
Island, the problem of their future cannot be regarded as 
finally solved. The relations of settler to native in New 
Zealand throw an instructive light upon the difficulty which 
has beset in the past, as it continues still to do, the advance 
of civilisation upon savage or undeveloped peoples. 

The treaty of Waitangi contained two essential stipulations : 
the first, the acceptance by the Maoris of the 
sovereignty and protection of the Queen ; the a ** t mport= 
second, the guarantee by the Governor of the 



278 New Zealand. [CH. IX. 

rights of ownership of the natives in their lands. This guarantee 
was further secured by the agreement that no individual chief 
had the right to convey the lands of his tribe, and that no 
individual settler or land-company should be permitted to 
acquire native lands. The tribe, therefore, alone could sell, 
the Governor, as representing the Queen, alone could buy, 
territory occupied by the Maoris. This last provision was of 
crucial importance. Promiscuous land grabbing had been a 
fertile source of Indian enmity in the American colonies, and 
the English Government in Canada had claimed the right of 
pre-emption to avoid similar disasters. The treaty of Waitangi, 
moreover, in admitting the title of the Maoris to the soil, gave 
them a recognised place within the subject populations of the 
Empire. 

Settlement was first begun upon North Island, where 
„ M Auckland was built in 1840, and remained the 

Settlers on , ^ * 

North island, capital of administration until it was superseded 
1 4 °" by Wellington in 1865. In the same year, New 

Zealand was formally separated from New South Wales and 

erected into a colony with the simple machinery 
ministration. °^ government in force in Australia at the time. 

The Governor, advised by a Council nominated 
by himself, was the supreme authority. Systematic emigration 
was promoted from home by the New Zealand Company, a 
joint stock corporation, with large capital and influential sup- 
port, and, unfortunately, powerful enough to modify the policy 
laid down by the Imperial governors on the spot. Large 
„. „ areas of land in North Island, where the Maoris 

The New ' . , 

Zealand Com- were mainly concentrated, were acquired by the 
Company's agents from various local chiefs in 
1 84 1, in defiance of the treaty of Waitangi. The first settle- 
ment in Middle Island (often called South Island on the 
maps), Nelson, was founded in 1841 by agents of the Com- 
Troubiesin P an Y> wno proceeded to survey lands on the 
Middle island, Wairau River farther south, in spite of native 
'841-4. protests that the soil had been illegally alienated. 



1 788 — 191 1.] New Zealand. 279 

Blood was shed, and but for the firmness of the acting Governor, 
who upheld the native contention, the English settlers in the 
island would have been driven into the sea. But the colonists, 
now increasing in numbers and keen to acquire large pastoral 
areas for wool-growing, forced the Executive to infringe treaty 
rights and so encouraged native unrest. The Maoris were well 
organised and vigorous, numbering probably nearly 100,000, as 
against 5,000 settlers. With little more provocation they would 
have forced the British into a desperate fight for existence. 

Fortunately at this crisis Captain George Grey was brought 
from the scene of his success in South Australia 

Governorship 

to take control of New Zealand. To this remark- of sir g. Grey, 
able ruler, who holds a foremost place amongst 
the makers of the Empire, New Zealand now owed its security. 
The Maoris quickly learned to rely on his friendship, his 
integrity, and his firmness. He promptly took his stand upon 
the treaty of Waitangi. He forbade, under heavy penalty, the 
irregular acquisition of lands, appointed a native police, gave 
guarantees for justice to native delinquents, and then, with the 
good will of the leading chiefs, repressed Maori agitation with 
a strong hand. The strength of the new Governor was next 
shewn in his attitude to the Home Government. A Consti- 
tution for the colony was passed through Parliament in 1846 
without consultation with the Governor ; when it reached him, 
in 1847, ne declined to put it into force. So convincing were 
the protests which he sent to the Colonial Office that a year 
later the entire Constitution was repealed on the motion of its 
own authors. 

Middle Island was now methodically colonised. Otago, in 
the extreme south, was founded by Scotchmen ; 

, . . Progress of 

Canterbury, adjoining it, was organised as a the Colony, 
Church of England settlement. The New Zea- x 45-5a " 
land Company, the constant hindrance to uniform policy in 
the Islands, was dissolved in 185 1, and the way made for a 
sound working Constitution suited to the local conditions. 



280 New Zealand [CH. IX. 

This was introduced in 1852. The white settlers then amounted 
to 27,000, the Maoris to 56,000, of whom 50,000 inhabited 
North Island. No convict had ever been transported to the 
colony. 

The Constitution providing responsible government was in 
the main Sir George Grey's scheme. Parliament included the 
. . Governor, an Upper Chamber nominated by 
Government, the Governor, and a House of Representatives. 
1 5a * Elective Provincial Councils for local govern- 

ment were set up. Crown lands, customs and trade regulations 
were, as in Australia, entrusted to the Legislature. Local 
government, however, in New Zealand, as in other colonies, 
refused to accommodate itself to organisation from England, 
and the provincial councils were gradually superseded by more 
workable local units. Maori rights under the old treaty were 
secured by reserving the Native department and Land regula- 
tions from colonial control. The Constitution of 1852 has not 
been seriously modified. It may be noted that the House of 
Representatives includes four native members for Maori con- 
stituencies. 

Meantime the Maori question had not been settled. In 

The Maori i860 the natives still held the greater part of 
Wars, i860— North Island ; the English settlements being 
limited to certain coast districts. A general 
anti-European movement now began to gather force. The 
trouble, which originated in land encroachments, merged about 
this time into a struggle for independence. War broke out in 
i860, and the security of the English in North Island was 
gravely threatened. In the following year Sir George Grey, 

sir George summoned in haste from the Cape, arrived as 
Grey returns, Governor for a second term. The war, which 
seemed to have abated under his influence, 
suddenly broke out again, the guerilla tactics of the Maoris 
rendering the task difficult for European troops. Native affairs 
had been, at the Governor's instance, entrusted in 1862 to 



1788 — 191 1-] New Zealand. 281 

the Colonial Government. The colonists were, as they have 
generally been, less tender to native interests than the Home 
Administration. A policy of confiscation and military repres- 
sion was resolved upon, increasing the bitterness of the struggle. 
Vital differences of opinion divided the Governor and his 
cabinet, and colonial authorities were at issue with Ministers 
in England. But the war, once seriously taken in hand, could 
have but one ending. By 1871 the natives were forced, though 
sullenly, to admit their defeat, and the islands have since that 
time had peace. During the crisis of the South African War 
the Maoris shared conspicuously the loyal sentiment which 
in so marked a degree characterised the colony. With 
the solution of the Maori difficulty New Zealand entered upon 
a career of peaceful development. In 1907 it acquired the 
status and title of ' Dominion ' ; though politically distinct in 
all respects from Australia, it shares in the obligations of the 
naval and military agreements for joint defence, in proportion 
to its population, which in 191 1 probably includes one million 
whites. No colony presents characteristics of climate and of 
society so nearly akin to those of the Mother country. New 
Zealand after 1870 has become recognised as the most home- 
like of British Imperial possessions. It has in later days 
acquired a special interest as the field of political and eco- 
nomic experiments. 

Legislation in Land and Labour matters has taken the 
direction of a modified socialism. Female Suffrage has been 
enacted. The position of New Zealand in face of the gradual 
partition of the Pacific is one of the most important factors in 
its relations to Australia and in its own future destiny. 



282 [CH. X. 



CHAPTER X. 

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. 
1795— 19 11 - 

Before entering upon the history of the European commu- 
nities of South Africa its geographical features 
feature^* 1 ma y be snort ly recalled. Africa, south of the 
Zambesi, is a great plateau, edged on three sides 
by mountain ranges, between which and the sea lies a com- 
paratively narrow coast-belt. From the great river-estuary 
southwards to Natal this fringe of land is in places swampy, 
is generally malarious, and is unsuited to European settlement. 
Within the limits of Cape Colony, however, and in the greater 
part of Natal, it is healthy, and for the most part fertile. The 
mountain region varies in breadth ; facing southwards three 
well-marked parallel chains run from east to west; behind 
Natal, the summits reach a height of 10,000 feet. 

Within this mountain belt is enclosed the South African 
plateau, stretching northwards to the Zambesi and beyond it. 
Thus Kimberley stands 4,000 feet above the sea, Johannesburg 
and Buluwayo 5,700 feet. The rainfall decreases steadily with 
the distance from the east coast, the western half of the plateau 
receiving barely 10 inches of rain per annum. As a conse- 
quence there are no permanent rivers of importance in South 
Africa. The atmosphere of the plateau is of peculiar and 
healthful dryness. There are no forests of giant trees; the 




To face p. 282 



CAMB. UNIV. PRESS. 



1795 — I 9 II The Dutch at the Cape. 283 

surface is covered by stretches of grass land and scrubby 
'bush,' easily traversed by settlers, and yielding but a poor 
return to sheep-farmer or grazier. The features of the country, 
once clearly grasped, will explain the nature of its colonisation. 

At the close of the 18th century, when the English connec- 
tion with South Africa begins, the native popula- 
tion of the Cape region fell into three well- R ™s. Native 
defined groups : the Bushmen, the Hottentots, 
and the Kaffirs. The Bushmen, the surviving primitive abori- 
gines of the continent, and already dying out, stood lowest in 
the scale. The Hottentot, of uncertain origin, was now hard 
pressed by the Kaffir tribes, a vigorous and prolific race, who 
were steadily forcing their way down from the plateaux of 
Central Africa, driving before them the earlier and weaker 
forerunners of their own blood. The relations of the white 
men with the Hottentot and Kaffir have been only second to 
the influence of geographical conditions in determining the 
history of European South Africa. 

This history began with the decision of the Dutch East 
India Company to establish at the Cape of Good „, ^ . 

r J r The Dutch 

Hope a permanent port of call for their Indian at the cape, 
fleets, just as the French were attempting in l652 ' 
vain to do in Madagascar, and as England was doing at St 
Helena. In 1652 three vessels landed a garrison and officials 
in False Bay, and a settlement was founded. Collisions with 
the Hottentots, and dread of rival European occupation, com- 
pelled the enlargement and fortification of the primitive post. 
Immigrants, however, were few. Holland had little overplus 
of population, and the national instinct went out rather to 
trade than to the uncertain toil of plantation. Towards the 
end of the century certain companies of Huguenots, expelled 
by Louis XIV, brought to the Cape, as they did to England 
and to America, new industries, such as vine-culture, and an 
admirable strain of citizenship. But the Dutch jealously dis- 
tributed the new-comers over the colony : their children were 



284 British South Africa. [CH. X. 

forced to learn Dutch. The French were thus soon lost in the 
dominant race. During the 18th century the colonists began 
to explore the region lying beyond the mountain range. They 
found a country unsuited to cultivation, but offering free scope 
for grazing. The Hottentot population was thinly scattered, 
and harmless ; there were no natural barriers of forest or river, 
and the grass, though poor, covered vast areas. The Dutch 
farmer, or ' Boer,' had little in common with the 
official class at Cape Town, and under the 
influence of the open veldt (or grass plain) he developed a 
taste for solitary and semi-nomadic life which he still retains. 
Ignorant and backward to begin with, this existence kept him 
permanently out of touch with civilisation. The Cape Boer 
remained Dutch indeed, but Dutch of the early 17 th century. 
Settlers of his race have never been tender in their dealings 
with native peoples. The Dutch promptly introduced slaves 
from the Gold Coast and from their Malayan islands, and 
proved hard masters to the Hottentots, whom they reduced, 
where they could, to a state of serfdom. 

As the Boers became more widely scattered the boundaries 
of the colony were enlarged. The Great Fish 

the cVlony" ° f River » 45° mileS east ° f Ca P e Town » and the 

innermost hill-range, the Sneeuwberg mountains, 
were the frontiers in 1780. By this advance the Boers were 
brought up to the edge of Kaffir territory. There was fighting 
in 1 781, and the Fish River was accepted on both sides as the 
dividing line of the white race and the Kaffir. But ten years 
later the black man had again encroached, and there was no 
effective boundary. 

Meantime various causes — bankrupt finance, burgher dis- 
„ ,. r content, revolution at home — had brought the 

Decline of ... . 

the Dutch e.i. administration of the Dutch Company, which 
company. si ^ ruled the colony, into chaos. The governors 

of British India were suspicious of renewed activity of the 
French in the East. In 1795 France converted Holland into 



1795 — 1 9 11 -] The Conquest of the Cape. 285 

the Batavian Republic. To secure the Cape against French 
naval designs, the British Government resolved 

• • r _,, . „ , First British 

to occupy it in force. . This was effected, with Occupation, 
the authority of the Stadtholder, in 1795, Cape I79 5- l8 °3- 
Town surrendering after slight resistance. 

For seven years Cape Town was governed as a military 
dependency, whose sole importance to Britain lay in its 
strategic relation to India. At the Peace of 
Amiens it once more reverted to Holland. conquest V i8o6 
With the renewal of the war the Cape was 
again occupied by a British force, and possession was formally 
confirmed by the Treaty of 1814. The sum of ^6,000,000 
was paid to the Dutch Government at home as compensation, 
and important concessions made to it in the Far East. 

The population of the colony in 1806 consisted of 26,000 

Europeans, almost entirely of Dutch origin, who 

owned 30,000 African and Malay slaves, and isticsofcape 

about 17,000 Hottentots. The principal indus- Colon y> lSo6 - 

tries were, in the district of Cape Town, vine and fruit culture, 

and gardening; between the hill-range and the coast, corn 

growing and mixed farming; whilst cattle and sheep grazed 

the grass plateau and the higher valleys. The pioneers amongst 

the Boers were the grazier-farmers, who had 'trekked' away 

from civilisation till they reached the southern watershed of the 

Orange River, or were stopped by the advancing Kaffirs. Until 

the close of the Napoleonic War, British immigration, outside 

of Cape Town, was of the slightest. After 181 7 

the causes that stimulated emigration to Canada „ immigration, 

1819 — 1821. 

and Australia had their influence also on South 

Africa. Systematic ' colonisation ' was organised at the instance 

of the Imperial Government, whose object was " not so much 

to send out to the Cape a number of isolated individuals, who 

should on landing be left to their own devices, as to despatch, 

in charge of responsible directors, parties of men or of families 

who should be associated together on the voyage and located 



286 British South Africa. [CH. X 

together after arrival" (Lucas). Parliament voted ^50,000 for 
the scheme, and land-grants and advances of money were 
assured to settlers, who were landed at Algoa Bay in the eastern 
district of the colony. From this time, 1819 — 182 1, this region 
of the colony has developed a distinctively British character, 
whilst the middle and western areas, apart from Cape Town, 
have in the main retained their Dutch affinities. The analogy 
of Ontario and Quebec, the British and French provinces of 
Canada, was thus in a certain degree reproduced. The effect 
of the English immigration was to prepare the way for the 
decline of slavery by the introduction of free labour, and, by 
bringing settlers of British race within reach of the Kaffir 
borderland, to unite both Dutch and British in the task of 
common defence. The prospects of a genuine amalgamation 
of the two European elements in South Africa were perhaps 
more encouraging during the first 20 years after the conquest 
of 1806 than they have ever been since. 

The Cape being primarily a military station its government 
was at the outset naturally of a military type. 
isS^fS" 1611 *' The Governor was directly responsible to the 
Crown, and held supreme authority in the 
colony. But the local institutions of the Dutch were retained; 
their law, their language, slavery, and the methods by which 
they organised themselves for frontier defence. To the Dutch 
grazing farmer, living from 100 to 300 miles from Cape Town, 
the change of rulers made little difference. 

We have seen that the first step towards colonial self- 
government has often been taken by the creation of an advisory 
Council formed of officials of the colony, such as the Com- 
mander of the troops, the Treasurer, the Secretary, the Sur- 
veyor of Lands, the acting Judge, and so on ; and that, later 
on, to this Council were added leading colonists who held 
no official post. This now took place in the Cape between 
1825 — 8. In 1833 the full status of a Crown Colony was 
reached by the appointment of two Councils : the Executive, 



1795 — 1 9 11 -] The Boers and British rule. 287 

consisting of the Governor and principal officials ; and the 
Legislative, which contained, in addition, an even proportion 
of colonists nominated by the Governor. The Governor ob- 
viously kept the chief influence in his own hands : but none 
the less he was now in direct touch with colonial opinion, and 
had to defend any new regulation before critics who could, 
and often did, complain of his action to the Secretary of State 
at home. 

During this same period the Dutch methods of local 
government were abolished, and replaced by a Dutch local 
new organisation of Commissioners and Resident government 
Magistrates ; and the Dutch language gave way a ° ls e ' x 28 ' 
to English in the local courts. Apart from this latter point the 
changes were no doubt an improvement, and were particularly 
to the advantage of the natives. But like many English 
reforms they were harshly enforced, and rode rough-shod over 
historic customs and prejudices. There was nothing concilia- 
tory in the manner in which the unfamiliar institutions were 
imposed upon a conservative and tenacious race. 

There were, henceforward, various causes at work which 
tended to discontent among the Cape Boers. Like Qrad 
that of their fathers of the Spanish wars, their faith alienation of 
was a rigid Calvinism. To the Boers, as to the 
Scottish Covenanters, whose creed theirs much resembled, the 
Old Testament, rather than the New, was the guide in war and 
politics. The Dutch Boer regarded the Hottentot 
and the Kaffir as the Hebrew did the men of q™^*^ 
Canaan or of Amalek. The claim of the native 
to the rights of Christian morality was not admitted, and was 
certainly not acted upon. When, by the expansion of the 
colony, the Boer had to face the cunning and ferocity of the 
Zulu Kaffirs, he hardened his heart still more against the black 
man, and viewed him as his co-religionists viewed the human 
panthers of the Canadian forest. Further, the Dutch had, as 
we have seen, never shewn themselves sensitive on the subject 



288 British South Africa. [ch. X. 

of slavery. In South Africa, although the climate afforded 

none of the excuse that could be pleaded in the 

West Indies or in Java, domestic slavery was a 

deep-rooted institution. An ordinance of the Governor in 

1828 declared all free natives to have the rights of citizens, in 

respect of security of person and of property, to the disgust of 

the Dutch, who could not brook so appalling an equality. It 

was attributed by them to their arch-enemies, the Missionaries. 

The influence of the Protestant Missionaries of South 

_. .„. . Africa, like that of the Jesuits in Canada, was 

The Mission- ^ , J ' 

ariesandthe not only a religious but a political force. On 
the point of creed, there was little or no an- 
tagonism between them and the Dutch Calvinist farmers. But 
long before the English occupation, Moravian pastors were 
bluntly told that native conversions would not be permitted; 
and outside missionary effort was steadily repressed. Within 
a year of the English conquest (1806), Moravians were being 
welcomed at Cape Town, and English and Scottish religious 
bodies were soon at work amongst the Hottentots. Now the 
missionary societies at home were at this time powerful in 
Parliament, where Wilberforce had just gained his first great 
victory in the abolition of the slave-trade. Complaints of ill- 
treatment of the natives, whether slave, serf, or free, by the 
Boers, were reported to Cape Town and thence to London. 
The Boers complained that their characters were traduced. 
An incident of 18 15 remains still a bitter memory with the 
Boers : the arrest of a farmer for a cruel outrage to a native 
servant produced an outbreak, upon which five Dutch prisoners 
were hanged. The missionaries henceforward took up the 
native cause with vigour. No doubt there was much exaggera- 
tion, but the truth was bad enough, and the black men had no 
other spokesmen but the missionaries. As regards the border 
warfare with the Kaffirs, we must remember that the Boer not 
seldom lived for years with his wife and children exposed to 
hourly peril He could look to no State protection. Isolated, 



1795— I9i I.] The Kaffir Wars. 289 

untouched by public opinion, believing himself called to drive 
back the heathen, he tended to become as fierce and as 
impatient of control as the primitive Hebrews, in whose foot- 
steps he walked. On the other hand, the missionaries were in 
many cases unintelligent men, partisans rather than arbitrators, 
ignoring the exigencies of a life of peril, and always sure of a 
more favourable hearing than their opponents. For all that, 
they represented humanity ; they educated, trained, and civil- 
ised, as well as preached. Amongst them, as readers of Living- 
stone's travels well know, were pioneers of the wilderness as 
fearless as the Boers themselves. The Government and 
public opinion in England generally accepted the missionary 
view of the Boer character. 

The exasperation thus produced was intensified by the Act 
of 1834, under which slavery was abolished in 
all British colonies. The measure struck a sitveJy^f 
severe blow at the wealth and customary insti- 
tutions of the Boers. The 'wrongfulness of slavery' was a 
phrase without meaning for the Dutch farmer, and the mone- 
tary compensation which reached him seemed, and probably 
was, inadequate. On the whole native question, 
therefore, the Boers were at issue with the better an ^ h p r ogress. 
thought of their age. Government, missionaries, 
and public opinion alike, were but the mouth-pieces of a stage 
of progress to which the Boers were unable to conform. The 
cleavage between the two races was, in reality, unavoid- 
able. 

The colony was now entering upon the severe crisis of the 
Kaffir wars. The Zulus had in the early years The Kaffir 
of the century, under their great chief Tshaka, wars, 18x1— 
been trained to fight in battalions and to adopt ^ ' 
military tactics which rendered them invincible in native war- 
fare. Pressing downwards along the coast they cleared Natal 
(1830) of its Kaffir population, and brought about a general 
pressure of native tribes upon the limits of Cape Colony. An 
\\. ii. 19 



290 British South Africa. [CH. X. 

offshoot of the Zulus were the Matabili, who in 1817 occupied 
the district north of the river Vaal. The Basutos, a race of 
mixed origin, and not less martial than the Zulus, made their 
home in the difficult mountain country between the present 
Orange Free State and Natal. The Bechuanas, a people of 
milder instincts, held the more arid territory west of the 
modern Transvaal. The Great Fish River was still (1834) 
the boundary between the white man and the Kaffir. But in 
that year the colony was invaded in force. The frontier districts 
settled by the English north of Algoa Bay were raided with 
fearful barbarity. Next year, however, the tide of savagery 
was hurled back, and the limit of European settlement carried 
forward 70 miles to the river Kei. The Governor of the colony, 
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, concluded with great wisdom an agree- 
ment, under which the Kaffirs were allowed to live as British 
subjects with their rights duly safeguarded by law. But the 
Home Government refused to ratify the policy, which had re- 
ceived the united approval of Dutch and English settlers alike. 
The frontier was once more withdrawn to the Great Fish River 
and the fruits of the war thrown away. To the Dutch Boer 
the action of the English ministry was as the last straw. The 
Great Trek of 1836 was the immediate result. 

The fundamental question confronting British rulers in 
South Africa was this : — Should it be the aim of the white man 
to fix an arbitrary line of division between his possessions and 
civilisation and those of the Kaffir : or should it be to bring 
about, under the strong protective arm of the British Empire, 
such a fusion as would admit of the two races living side by 
side ? The former method has generally ended in the extinc- 
tion of the weaker race ; the latter, though full of difficulty, is 
the method of true Imperialism. 

But the colonial authorities at home, reflecting perhaps 

Reversal of English Liberal opinion as a whole, were at 

the Kaffir j-^jg t } me h^xd) averse to any measures which 

Settlement, . . . 

X836. seemed to increase British responsibilities. 



1795 — 19 1 **] The Boer Trek. 291 

Retreat appeared to present less risk than advance in colonial 
affairs. Home politicians had yet to learn that the price of 
such policy has inevitably to be paid by the next generation. 
In this case the fierce Kaffir wars of 1846 and 185 1 were 
the direct result of overruling, on insufficient knowledge, the 
expert advisers of the Crown at the Cape. But the forward 
policy of bringing Kaffir-land under civilised control was 
carried through to its proper end by Sir George Grey, the 
Governor, in 1858. By judicious white settlement, by the 
making of roads, by encouraging agriculture, and by firm and 
even-handed justice between European and native, the extension 
of the Pax Britannica over Kaffraria was assured, though it 
was not finally accomplished until 1878. 

The immediate result of the policy of withdrawal imposed 
upon the colony in 1836 was a decision of the 
Boers of the eastern districts to shake themselves Trtkrtrf* 
free from British rule. The North and North- 
East lay open to them; there they could resume that semi- 
patriarchal life which was becoming impossible to them in 
their present homes. The Great Trek, or secession, of the 
Cape Dutch was begun in 1836. The movement was spread 
over several years, for the emigrants moved in detachments; 
and from first to last between seven and ten thousand English 
subjects went out from the colony into the unknown wilder- 
ness. Amongst them, a boy of ten, was Paul Kriiger, after- 
wards the strong-willed ruler of the Transvaal State. The 
parties which made for the northern plains crossed the Orange 
River, and those who rested there ultimately con- 
stituted the Orange River Sovereignty. But not cross tn e ers 
a few pushed further northwards still, and crossed ° ran p River 

r . '. and the Vaal. 

the Vaal River, where they came into conflict 
with the Matabili warriors not far from the Witwatersrand. 
There the trekkers fell upon them and drove them to find a 
new seat for their tyranny between the Limpopo and the 
Zambesi, where, some time after 1840, their Chief built his 

19 — 2 



292 British South Africa. [ch. x. 

kraal at Buluwayo. The Boers then spread themselves thinly 
over their new lands and found themselves once more cut off 
from the world. 

Meantime from Cape Colony a large and stronger company 

of Boers had turned North-eastwards, crossing 
Nataiy i83g UPy tne Quathlamba range into the country then 

beginning to be called Natal. They found that 
region still desolate after the scourge of the Zulu invasion ten 
years before. The Boer leader, Pieter Rietief, was treacher- 
ously murdered with his followers by the Zulu king, Dingaan. 
In revenge, a valiant attack was made by a mere handful of 
fresh immigrants and the Zulu host utterly routed on Dec. 16th, 
1838 — a day still honoured in the Transvaal as Dingaan's Day. 
The Boers then resolved to occupy Natal. The English had 
been there before them on the coast, but no sovereignty had 
hitherto been proclaimed. Pietermaritzburg was now founded 
by the Boers ; farms were marked out ; a Volksraad, or Assem- 
bly, met. But the English Governor at the Cape, who had not 
interfered when the Boers trekked into the interior, had now the 
vision of a new maritime state with all its possible complications. 
_. „ ... . Moreover difficulties between the Boers and the 

The British 

decide to claim Kaffirs had already arisen and threatened the 
peace of Cape Colony. The Home Government 
suddenly turned round : it was resolved in 1842 to occupy 
Natal in force. Troops were sent to Durban, and were promptly 
besieged by Boer levies, who resented what seemed to them an 
intrusion. A year later Natal was proclaimed a Colony (1843), 
with the watershed as its western boundary and Kaffraria sepa- 
rating it from the Cape ; northwards it impinged upon the Zulu 
stronghold. The Boers sullenly yielded to circumstances. But 
the majority of them trekked away again to the Vaal or the 
Orange River. Once more the Boer had a grievance, this 
time not without foundation. 

It is characteristic of the change which had come over 
English opinion, that the grant of self-government was pressed 



1795 — 19 11 *] Responsible Government. 293 

upon the Cape by the Colonial Office several years before the 
colony agreed to accept it. In 1853 represen- 
tative government was introduced. The Legisla- men t in Cape 
ture included two Elective Chambers, and the J : 8 °!, ony • l853 ~ 
franchise was accorded without distinction of race 
or colour upon a low qualification. The Executive Govern- 
ment, however, remained independent of the Legislature, so 
that the Constitution was that of a Crown Colony. But the 
measure of self-government thus accorded served the purpose 
of training the colonists, divided as they were by race and 
interests, in the duties of common citizenship. Responsible 
government was granted in 1872, with the full powers exercised 
by the Parliaments of Canada and Australia. It was hoped 
that, as in the case of Canada, the grant of full autonomy 
might prepare the way for a great South African 
confederation, as the means by which British, ^tt*l*l™$. 
Dutch, and native peoples might reach a 
working reconciliation within the Empire. 

From 1845 to 1856 Natal formed part of the Cape Colony 
for administrative purposes. In the latter year 
Natal gained a colonial status of its own. ,8fe. ata ' ~ 
During these years it was remarkable for the 
small proportion of its European population; in 1852, this 
amounted to 8,000 against 113,000 Kaffirs. Native interests 
were naturally of grave concern to the colonial rulers. For 
many years the tribal organisation was preserved and civilis- 
ing influences were brought to bear through the Residents 
placed with the chiefs. But by degrees the policy has been 
adopted of encouraging the Kaffirs to enter into the ordinary 
life of the colony, as cultivators and owners of land and as 
citizens. As a field for emigration Natal had, at the outset, 
a bad name. But first wool, then sugar were successfully 
produced; and about i860 the colony began to make steady 
progress. As regards administration, Natal remained a Crown 
Colony until its troubles with the Zulus on the northern border 
were finally settled by the breaking-up of the Zulu military 



294 British South Africa. [CH. X. 

organisation in 1887. Responsible government was granted 
in 1893. 

The relations of the British to the Boers settled beyond 

e tne Orange River must now be followed up. 

the Boer Between the Orange River and the Vaal the 

epu lcs. Boer population was less rigid in its antipathy to 

the English than their brethren farther north. Within the former 
area, the Orange River district, there was indeed a large 
proportion of farmers ready to admit British Imperial protec- 
tion, if not actual annexation. It thus happened that in 1848 
a territory nearly identical with that of the Orange Free State 
of our present maps was formally taken over as 
RiVer statef ' a dependency of the Crown under the title of 
the Orange River Sovereignty. The Boers of 
the Transvaal, however, now consisting of a number of small 
unorganised communities, scattered over an area nearly as large 
as France, were tenacious of their independence. But a fit of 
disgust at the growth of Imperial responsibilities once more 
seized ministers at home. By the Sand River 
Repub"°, 8 i85a! Convention of 1852 the independence of the 
Transvaal was formally admitted by the High 
Commissioner, and two years later the Orange River Sove- 
reignty was deliberately abandoned, by the Bloemfontein Con- 
vention, to save the risks and expense of its defence. This 
amazing step was taken in defiance of the strongest protests, 
not only from the Cape but from our Orange River subjects 
themselves. By these agreements Great Britain formally 
recognised the existence of the two independent Boer States. 
The Orange Free State pursued a career of steady progress, 
marked until 1896 by friendly relations with Cape Colony. In 
President Brand, who from 1863 until 1888 ruled the Republic, 
England had a sincere friend and the burghers a judicious and 
patriotic leader. Even in the troubled times between 1877 
and 1 88 1 he was able to restrain them, though with difficulty, 
from active support of their kinsmen across the Vaal. In 



1795 — 1 9 11 -] The South African problem. 295 

1896, however, the Jameson Raid swept them into an open 
alliance with the Transvaal. 

The Boers of the Transvaal State, however, had a more 
chequered history. Scattered thinly over a wide area they 
resented central control and taxation ; they were satisfied with 
primitive local organisation for police, administration and 
defence. On the other hand their isolation and their evil 
repute with all South African natives invited attack from their 
inveterate Kaffir enemies, such as Sikukuni in the north-east, 
and Cetewayo further south. In 1877 the Republic was 
threatened with anarchy and dissolution from within, by a 
war of extermination from the Zulus beyond the border. To 
avert a catastrophe bound to react banefully 
through South Africa Great Britain proclaimed l8 ^" n 8 " ation 
the annexation of the helpless Transvaal State. 
Such of the Boers as had not urged the necessity of this step 
were speedily resigned to it as the only alternative to massacre 
or flight. But with the overthrow of Cetewayo in 1879 tne 
Zulu danger had become a thing of the past. The need for 
British protection was less urgent and the old instinct of inde- 
pendence revived. The new government, moreover, had not 
respected its promised conditions of autonomy. Its repre- 
sentatives were unwisely chosen and their action was often 
injudicious. Revolt was proclaimed by Pretorius, Kriiger and 
Joubert in December 1880 : Majuba Hill was lost on February 
26, 1 881; a month later the Transvaal State was recognised by 
Great Britain as an independent Republic under . . . 

r r Independence 

the 'Suzerainty' of the British Crown — a con- recovered, 
cession interpreted by the Boers and the English * ' 
colonists alike as due, not to conscious strength but to fear. 
It now became a chief end of policy with the Transvaal 
government to secure release from the conditions of the treaty 
of 188 1, especially from those regarding the natives, the 
restriction upon foreign relations, the limitations of territory 
and the suzerainty. The pre-occupation of the Gladstone 



296 British South Africa. [CH. X. 

government with the Egyptian troubles and with Ireland gave 
President Kriiger the desired opening. In February 1884 the 
Convention of London superseded the previous agreement. In 
it the term 'Suzerainty' disappeared and all stipulations for 
the security of the natives in person and property were 
abandoned apart from a ' declaration ' against slavery of which 
no guarantee was demanded by Great Britain. The agreement 
in respect of the boundaries of the Republic was immediately 
broken by President Kriiger and involved the despatch of an 
expedition by the government at home under Sir Charles 
Warren in the spring of 1885. 

At this period the Dutch population of the Transvaal 
scarcely exceeded 50,000 souls. The gold discoveries of the 
Witwatersrand in 1884-85 introduced a new factor into the 

The Gold problem of South African politics. There set in 
discoveries, a stream of immigration from Cape Colony, Natal 
l ^' and Great Britain. Questions involved in the 

status of the "Uitlander" became more and more acute as the 
permanent character of the gold industry was revealed. The 
political, social and economic contrasts presented by the new 
population and the old, followed the line of racial cleavage as 
in the Cape seventy years before. The Afrikander Bond, a 
political organisation controlled by the colonial Dutch, threw 
its influence into the scale against the interests of the Uitlander. 
Late in the year 1895 tne Reform movement at Johannesburg 
became involved with an unjustifiable attempt to force a solution 
by armed force, organised with cognisance of the Premier of 
the Cape and known as the Jameson Raid. The invaders 
surrendered to the Boers on January 1, 1896. Mr Rhodes 
had in 1889 founded the British South Africa Company, to 
which had been granted the control under the British Crown 
of the region beyond Bechuanaland and the Transvaal occupied 

The British by the Matabele and Mashona Kaffirs whose 
South Africa tribal power was destroyed in the conflicts which 

Company, , 

i83g. lasted from 1893 to 1896. This expansion of 

British influence was resented by the Boers as limiting their 



iyc)5 — 191 1.] The South African problem. 297 

hopes of extension towards the Zambesi, whilst it offered 
opportunity of menacing the Transvaal from the west. 

The position of President Kruger was much strengthened, 
and that of the Uitlander rendered more difficult, by the 
abortive attack led by Dr Jameson. The progress of the 
mines however led to a steady increase in the non-burgher 
population, whilst the administration, oligarchical and corrupt, 
refused all concessions, and secretly accumulated enormous 
supplies of war material. In May, 1899, a conference between 
Sir Alfred Milner and the Presidents of the Transvaal and of 
the Free State was held at Bloemfontein which it was hoped 
might lead to action in the interests of the industrial population, 
in fulfilment of the spirit of the conventions of 1881 and 1884. 
Negotiations were put an end to by the declaration 
of war by the Transvaal in October 1899, the x ™t*°*{^ 
burghers of the Free State taking the field with 
their allies. The invasion of Natal and the Cape Colony, the 
investment of Kimberley and of Ladysmith, a series of British 
reverses in each field of operations, aroused the Empire to the 
seriousness of the issue. Lord Roberts took over the command 
in January, 1900. A large army from the Mother country 
and the Colonies was speedily despatched. Kimberley and 
Ladysmith were relieved in February, and General Cronje's 
surrender on Majuba Day opened the way to Bloemfontein. 
Natal was cleared and Johannesburg and Pretoria were in British 
hands by June. The two Boer Republics were 
thereupon formally annexed to the British Empire. 
For two years longer the Boers maintained with great ability 
an irregular warfare which spread to Cape Colony. The 
persistence of Great Britain, the enthusiastic support of the 
Colonies, the military skill of Lord Kitchener, slowly forced 
the Boers in the field to accept the inevitable result of a 
hard-fought conflict. On May 31, 1902, Lord Kitchener and 
Lord Milner received the assent of the Boer leaders to the 
annexation at Vereeniging and with the hearty goodwill of 
both races peace was proclaimed. 



298 British South Africa. [CH. X. 

The organisation of the new Colonies was entrusted to 
Viscount Milner whose experience and capacity rendered 
possible the grant of Responsible government (1907) within 
five years of the close of the war. But a closer co-ordination 
The of the four self-governing units was recognised 

south African as necessary in the interests of South African 
consolidation. The federal type of constitution 
approved by the colonists of Canada and Australia was set 
aside in favour of full political union. After a Referendum, 
or direct appeal to the electorate of each colony, a project of 
Union was submitted to the Home Government and received 
the warm assent of both English parties. The new Constitution 
came into operation on 31 May 19 10. Upon the results of 
the elections subsequently held General Botha, former com- 
mandant in the field against the British, became the first 
Prime Minister, Pretoria being the capital of the Union and 
Cape Town the seat of the Legislature. 

The constitution follows British precedent. The executive 
or 'government' corresponds to the Cabinet. The Legislature 
consists of two Houses ; the Judiciary is guarded by the same 
measure of independence which it enjoys in Britain. Each 
colony or 'Province' preserves a local jurisdiction hardly more 
extensive than that of a County Council at home. Military 
and naval defence are the concern of the War Office and 
Admiralty in London. Powers are taken to admit Rhodesia 
to the Union by agreement, and to assume the control of the 
Native protectorates such as Bechuanaland. 

The success of the Union will be judged by its ability to 
weld together British and Dutch into a common nationality, 
which shall find in the Empire the best security for its de- 
velopment. Its foremost men of both races recognise that 
the growth, and indeed the continuance of a united South 
Africa, depends primarily on the power of the British fleet 
to preserve it from foreign interference. 

The chief economic resources of the Union are mining 



1795 — 1 9 11 -] Rhodesia. 299 

and agriculture. The former of these has owing to the geo- 
logical conditions of the gold and diamond formations become 
a stable industry. But the hopes entertained after the war 
that the agricultural possibilities of the newly-won colonies 
would attract British farmers as settlers, with valuable political 
results, have not been realised. Southern Rhodesia, however, 
is making rapid progress, for there not mining alone but 
ranching and tobacco-growing are beginning to offer profitable 
fields for capital and industry. Northern Rhodesia, beyond 
the Zambesi, is still in a very early stage of settlement. But 
the great trunk railway has now reached and passed the north- 
west boundary of the territory, the wealth of which will be in 
consequence more easily explored. The administration of this 
vast area, which stretches from the borders of Bechuanaland to 
the frontier of the Congo States and of German East Africa, is 
in the hands of the Chartered Company and the characteristics 
of the settlers are distinctively British. 



300 [CH. XI. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE FRENCH WAR, WEST AND EAST AFRICA, 
THE ASIATIC SEAS. 1793 — 19H. 

In the four preceding chapters we have traced the founda- 
tion of our Indian empire and the development of the three 
groups of self-governing colonies. It remains to follow the 
steps by which Britain established a footing in Asia outside 
the limits of the Peninsula, and extended her power in West 
Africa and in the West Indies. We shall find 

Possessions 

rather than that, speaking generally, we have not here to deal 

with true colonies, i.e. new homes for people of 

British race ; for these acquisitions lie almost wholly within the 

tropical region, and were made from motives in which suitability 

for permanent settlement had no place. These possessions 

will range themselves for historical treatment under three 

groups : those acquired during the French war of 1793 — 1815 ; 

those deriving their origin from the connection of England with 

the Slave-Trade, i.e. the West African possessions; lastly, the 

islands and military and commercial settlements in Asiatic seas. 

Apart from the Peninsular campaigns of Wellington, 

Those a< England's share in the continental war was not 

quired by war, brilliant. British operations were mismanaged 

and sometimes disastrous. One reason for the 

failure was the consciousness that our stake in the struggle on 

European soil was of secondary importance. The ocean, and 







e> 




w 


o 










w 




CM 










< 
O u 




















o 




























°: t 
























i £ 
























*? a. 




< 


















in 
co 


Hj>22r 


nJ 




















CO*— ' ."jT 
























— ...» J 

Ml f* 

as x 
hi x 






=^ 






\ o ° 












©1 »' 

3l » 


5i( 


♦••♦* 


--. ^ 






A3 5 
V ° 








in 
go 




ht / 
























t ? / 






-'"'•"'■i ^Jf^"^ 


















O > i 




< ■ 


















o 


A** 


| 


P 


? °? \ 


g 


) _l 
4>< 


V" ■■"'-•- 


"Q^Kj 








CO 




s 


'-."f 


-ew___||_ 


1 


jnf 
















S 


my 


5i £ 




L CO 


« | |i j 


io •s*eP 


-^^— S. 




o 




fsd^ 




0-"i ,*,. 




\ z 


! 1 E/j. 


ik\ 




CO 








a 


»£.. 




\£?~ 




a !2 X COZ 

V Z = OCn << 

^sg 5 uJ ».ca_i 




X 

1- 






cs 


Z \.. 


-J;/ 








a** 


£ ^*%B 


wi 


l 1- 


tn 

CN 




o 






< 
-i 






















\ ^* — 1%**^ 














X 
K 






< 
z 
< 

X 


I 




° 3m 






o 


111 

09 










O 
111 

CO 






O \y| 

hi jTf* I 

a. :-"-* f 




o 

CN 








' lu 


It 












s 


< 






3 






z 
< 










_ O ,..--> 1 


&£ 






J 3 






2 % 








t^/"^ / 


0,1 -^ 


5 

o 






»- 






a a5 .. 








„„*•' yS 




5 






e 






w ,; "* f i N 






j, ,„„/ 










in 


o 






o J. 




_W? 


„»«»' ^^_ 








in 








^^ 














a 


#• > 


d^ 


1 














in 


10 

























o 






o 










ei 




^ 









I793 - 1 9 11 -] Capture of Ceylon. 301 

that which lay beyond it, were the real concern of England, 
and there we reaped our profit from the conflict. 
The naval war, it must be borne in mind, was pj^erfisos. 
vital, not merely as deciding the security of the 
Channel, but as enabling the colonial empire to be held and 
extended. No European fleets menaced the peaceful develop- 
ment of Canada or Australia. The British took the Cape 
and controlled the Deccan without interference from France. 
The Battle of the Nile dissipated Napoleon's dream of an 
Eastern empire. Trafalgar finally delivered the colonies of 
France and of her allies into British hands. So that although 
this chapter cannot treat of the steps *by which the supremacy 
of England at sea was once more confirmed, the significance of 
the sea-power at this crisis must be kept vividly in mind. 
Nelson and Pitt stand in the background, the indispensable 
personages without whom expansion in the East, the West, and 
the South would have been wholly impossible. 

Napoleon's attack upon England in 1798 by way of Egypt, 
with India as his ultimate goal, suggests that we may consider, 
first, the results of the great war in establishing the security 
of British power in the East, In 1795, as we 
have already seen (p. 279), the Cape of Good 
Hope was occupied for its strategic importance in relation 
to India. In the same year, Ceylon, Dutch also, was taken by 
the Indian fleet. Ceylon had been in Dutch hands for nearly 
150 years; but intent as usual on the profitable spice trade, 
the conqueror had not brought the higher and cooler districts 
of the interior under control. The English were welcomed by 
the natives — as they invariably were, where the Dutch had 
preceded them — and steadily developed the resources of the 
island, of which first coffee and then tea became the important 
exports. Trincomalee is one of the chief naval harbours in 
Asiatic waters; and the risk of its passing into hostile pos- 
session induced the original attack upon Ceylon, and has 
caused it to be tenaciously held. It was not, like the Cape, 



302 The Great War. [CH. XI. 

restored at Amiens in 1802. In 1798 Ceylon came directly 
under the control of the Crown, and its subsequent history 
is that of a typical Crown Colony. 

As a unit of the line of communications to the East, 

Napoleon had seized Malta in 1798 on his way 

to Egypt. The Knights of St John, a military 
Order of the Crusades, had governed the islands since 1530. 
They now rose against the French garrison, and by aid of the 
British fleet expelled it in 1800. The islands were thereupon 
ceded by the inhabitants to Great Britain. It was a provision 
of the Treaty of Amiens (1802) that the cession should be 
annulled : the refusal to carry out this condition was the actual 
pretext for the renewal of the war. It was on both sides seen 
to be a link of great importance in the line of posts that 
connects Western Europe with the East. It was and still is 
the counterpoise to Toulon, and the chief station of the British 
fleet in the Mediterranean. The native Maltese retain a large 
share in the Legislative Council, and their institutions have 
been little interfered with. 

One further acquisition, of similar significance, that of the 

He de France, or Mauritius, was due to the 
l8 w. aUritiU8 ' war - Originally Dutch (named from Maurice of 

Nassau), it passed early in the 18th century into 
the hands of France. La Bourdonnais (see p. 198) had created 
in the island a first-rate naval station, a perpetual thorn in the 
side of the East India Company, by reason of its privateers, 
and of its convenience as an advanced base of a French fleet. 
Wellesley pressed the importance of its capture ; but this was 
not effected until 18 10. 

Each of these possessions gained from Holland or France — 

Each of these Malta, the Cape, Ceylon, Mauritius — was seized 

important to with direct reference to the military security of 

India. We notice the seriousness with which 
under the influence of Pitt, the English Government regarded 
the claims of Indian defence. Indian statesmen have known 



T 793 — I9H-] The West Indies. 303 

ever since, that these claims, once clearly grasped, will always 
be supported with the full strength of the Empire. 

We now turn to the West. The American war which 
ended in 1783 had sorely tried the British West _. „ r . 

' ° J The WeBt 

Indies. Many of the islands had been occupied indies, 1793— 
by French troops, and Tobago had been sur- x I4 " 
rendered. The balance was now to be redressed. St Lucia, 
coveted for its harbour, one of the finest in the 
West Indies, was taken by Admiral Jervis in ucia ' X794 ' 

1794. Restored at Amiens it was taken for the last time in 
1803. Trinidad, the fine Spanish island over „,_..,. J 

. , • , , , . Trinidad, 1797. 

against the mamland, was attacked in 1797. 
There was a large admixture of French settlers, who resisted, 
but the Spaniards, dragged into a war not of their own seeking, 
declined to join in the defence. The island was _ t 

. Tobago, 1803. 

definitely ceded in 1802. Tobago, closely ad- 
joining, which had seen many changes of owner since English- 
men first settled there in 1625, was in 1803 finally recovered 
for its original possessors. 

The war also gave to England her one possession in the 
South American continent. Guiana had, indeed, 
been closely associated with English adventure Guiana, h i7o6. 
in the 17th century. Raleigh's romantic enter- 
prise was followed by attempts at plantation under Charles I. 
Lord Willoughby, a great West Indian Governor, received a 
'Patent' for a new settlement at the Restoration. But the 
Dutch were there already, and the French had a footing also. 
The war with Holland, which gave us New York in 1664, 
ousted us from Guiana. The Dutch now retained possession 
until 1796, when a British force from Barbados — always to the 
fore if the British flag were to be planted on fresh ground — 
took the settlements on and near the Essequibo, with the 
half-concealed good will of the Dutch Governor. The forms 
of government were but slightly altered; Dutch proprietors 
retained their privileges, and no attempt was made to impose 



304 The West Indies. [ch. XI. 

British institutions upon the population. The colony, how- 
ever, had been but slightly developed ; and the proportion of 
negro slaves to whites was, about the time of the Peace (18 15), 
thirteen to one. British Guiana, now almost exclusively a 
sugar colony, is by no means wholly explored. It still keeps 
certain Dutch elements in its constitution as a Crown Colony. 
The shores on either side of the peninsula of Yucatan had, 
British ^ or a hundred and fifty years, been frequented 

Honduras, by wood-cutters from the West Indian Islands, 
hardy and pugnacious men, in close relations 
with the Buccaneers. They were, by origin, mainly British 
subjects ; they had a standing feud with the Spanish rulers of 
Mexico, but were on friendly terms with the vigorous native 
tribes that survived in the great forests. Until 1798 the 
settlements at and near Belize were still dependent upon 
Spain, though under protection, by treaty, of Great Britain, an 
anomalous arrangement bound to lead to trouble. In 1798 
the Spaniards determined to clear the coast of the intruders. 
But by aid of a small British force the settlers beat back the 
attack. Vague rights of occupation now merged in definite 
British Sovereignty. The colony of Honduras remained for 
some time a primitive settlement with the minimum of inter- 
ference from Great Britain. Ultimately it became a Crown 
Colony with organised administration. It is not larger than 
Wales, and owes its prosperity to its valuable forests of ma- 
hogany and logwood. 

The West Indies have long since fallen into a subordinate 
rank amongst British colonies. Their strategic 

indies^ 68 * importance ceased with the gradual exclusion 
of European powers other than England from 
the politics of Central and North America. This has been 
one result of the rapid growth in political and commercial 
importance of the United States, with whom it is a cardinal 
doctrine that European powers should not add to their owner- 
ships in American territory — the Monroe doctrine, so called 



1793 — J9 11 *] The Slave Trade: the Gambia. 305 

after a prominent President of the Union. The decline in 
the prosperity of the English-owned islands, caused by the 
revolution in the trade in sugar due to the growth of beet 
in Europe, has been arrested by improved methods of sugar 
manufacture and by the extension of other cultivations. The 
Panama Canal, however, will affect materially the strategic and 
commercial value of the British West Indies. The loss of her 
colonies by Spain in the American War of 1898 was an event 
of first importance in the Caribbean Seas. The consequences 
of it to the development of the rest of the West Indian islands 
have already begun to appear. 



West Africa. 

It is an easy transition to pass from the West Indies to 
West Africa. The intimate relation of the two „, . ... 

West Africa 

regions, through negro slavery, has been touched and the slave 
upon already. The traffic in African slaves 
reached its height in the closing years of the 18th century; 
# and the effects of it were shewn in the gradual abandonment 
of other crops in favour of cotton, rice and sugar within the 
area of slave cultivation. In 1807, however, the efforts of 
Wilberforce and his friends were crowned with their first 
success, in the passing of an Act for the abolition of the import 
of slaves into British Dominions. The suppression of slavery 
itself followed in 1834. The effects of this revolution upon 
the West Indian colonies were profound and lasting. In 
Africa the consequences have been not less marked. European 
nations, England amongst them, went to Africa mainly to buy 
slaves. When the traffic was suppressed England kept her 
hold upon the coast, partly, at least, in order to undo the 
consequences of the evil she had helped to create. No part of 
the imperial possessions can lay less claim to the title of 
' colony ' ; for in the West African coast-region the white man 
cannot make his home. The centres 01 British The chief 
power are five : Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold centres of 
Coast, Lagos, and the Niger. These have each 

w. e. 20 



306 West Africa. [CH. XL 

had a separate origin and history ; the first three are connected 
intimately with the story of the slave trade ; the two latter are 
the acquisition of recent years. 

The Gambia, with its broad and accessible estuary, 
The Gambia- stretcnm g two hundred miles into the interior, 
Fort james, attracted English traders to follow in the wake of 
John Hawkins. But in the 16th century none 
beyond occasional voyages were made. When England de- 
cided to compete with Holland and Portugal for a share in 
the slave-trade (see p. 171), Fort James was built near the 
mouth of the river and became a chief centre of British African 
trade. The Gambia has ever since remained an English 
possession; whilst France has, in the same way (except for 
a short interval after 1763), controlled the more northerly river, 
the Senegal. In the latter half of the 18th century the English 
Fort became a centre of territorial possessions, which, however, 
has never extended beyond the navigable estuary, and has 
never been enlarged by a Protectorate of the native hinterland. 
Bathurst, the seat of government, superseded Fort James after 
the abolition of the negro traffic. 

About the same time that Fort James was built the English 
were forcing from the Dutch a foothold on the 
c«tst ?66i d ^°^ Coast, 500 miles away, which, facing south, 
forms part of the north shore of the Gulf of 
Guinea. There, no attempt was made to gain actual territory: 
on a convenient plot of coast-land, rented from a native chief, 
a strong post, or 'Castle,' was built, and Dutch, English, 
Danes and Prussians had each their own slave-trading com- 
panies who owned such Forts, in which negroes were collected 
for embarcation. The chief English forts were named Cape 
Coast Castle and Accra : the Dutch centre was Elmina. 
Between the Senegal and the Niger there were, at the end 
of the 1 8th century, forty of such 'castles.' Europeans held 
them for trade alone, and that trade was solely in human 
beings. After 1807 four forts only were retained by the English 



1 793 — 1 9 ' l •] Sierra Leone. 307 

slave-traders, who perforce adapted them to other commerce. 
These came under the direct ownership of the British Govern- 
ment in 182 1, when they were included with Gambia and 
Sierra Leone under the Crown Colony of the 'West African 
Settlements.' But in 1827 the Gold Coast portion was 
abandoned to a committee of merchants, who took over the 
' Castles ' and enjoyed a small subsidy from Parliament. The 
district now began to make steady progress. We have seen 
that a reluctance to retain possessions which seemed difficult 
of development and involved troubles with natives marked 
English colonial policy from time to time during the period 
which followed the Peace of 18 15. The Gold Coast was 
already harassed by Ashantee wars which have but lately 
ceased. But the principle of withdrawal was seldom long 
adhered to. Thus the Crown again resumed the control of 
the Gold Goast in 1841 ; a genuine effort to undo the evil 
effect of the slave-trade regime was now made. A police force 
was organised; roads made; chiefs brought under civilising 
influences ; missions assisted. Of the European States which 
continued to hold castles on the coast, and so The entire 
broke the continuity of the English sovereignty, Gold coast 
the Danes first and the Dutch afterwards sold ng ls ' x 7 °" 
them to this country. Native chiefs were protected from the 
Ashantees, and slave-raids and human sacrifices sternly re- 
pressed. It was sorrowfully recognised that the degradation 
of the negro peoples of the nearer African interior was the 
direct result of European slave-dealing. The savagery of 
Dahomey and Benin was the survival of the ferocity by which 
native chiefs, a century earlier, had supplied the demands of 
English and Dutch traders for victims for the plantations. 

The settlement of Sierra Leone owes its origin to this same 
desire to atone for the crime of slave-trading. 
It lies between the two ancient seats of the ^Jf* 1 * **' 
traffic, the Gambia and Cape Coast Castle, in 
a district noted as a hunting-ground for negroes since the days 

20 — 2 



308 West Africa. [ch. XL 

of John Hawkins. A philanthropic association in London 
took over the territory in 1791, with the object of forming a 
community of freed slaves. After the Act of 1807 cargoes of 
negroes intercepted by British warships were landed there; 
and a strange mixture of black refugees found its way to the 
colony. Sierra Leone, once fairly started on its mission of 
restoration, became a Crown possession, and in 1821 formed 
part of the West African Settlements. To-day it is a separate 
Crown Colony. From these three colonies the great explorers 
of the Niger started on their journeys, including the greatest of 
all African discoverers, Mungo Park, who traced the course of 
the Niger in the early years of the 19th century. 

In 1 86 1, Lagos— between the Gold Coast and the Niger — 

was ceded to Britain, and became a new base of 

warfare against the slave trade, a new missionary 
field, and the seat of a profitable trade in West African produce, 
chiefly palm-oil. English rule had now reached the delta of 
the Niger; traders pushed along its broad streams, bartered, 
negotiated with native tribes : the inevitable result followed. 

Trade forced an opening in the wake of ex- 
The Niger, plorers, the Queen's Government was called upon 

to recognise rights thus acquired by British 
subjects; then came the Chartered Company or the Pro- 
tectorate, and in the end formal sovereignty over the Lower 
Niger. 

But a new rival has now appeared. The French pressing 

The French down from the north across Sahara, and from 

in West the west along the Senegal, had joined hands. 

The English Government had in 1865, in a fit 
of disgust at the costliness and apparent uselessness of the 
West African Settlements, decided once more upon a policy 
of withdrawal. This was the opportunity of the French. By 
a series of quiet but effective military movements, they gained 
control of the territory lying behind the English settlements, 
hemming them in from the interior. When the reaction had 



1793 — I 9 II «] The Niger Protectorates. 309 

passed, England found her sphere of expansion much re- 
stricted — the Upper Niger closed to her, and the Lower 
Niger saved only by the exertion of individual traders. 

About 1883 Germany, seeking a footing in West Africa, 
began to put forward claims to the control of the district lying 
along the river Cameroons, east of the Niger, which conflicted 
with British influence already secured in the The Berlin 
delta region then known as the Oil Rivers. To Conference on 
settle these and other questions arising out of nca » x 5- 
European pretensions to vast areas on both sides of the 
Continent a Conference was held at Berlin in 1885 which 
ultimately resulted in the delimitation of the respective spheres 
of influence of the European powers in East and West Africa 
which now obtains. 

In West Africa the Oil Rivers Protectorate lying between 
the colony of Lagos and the Rio del Rey was 
proclaimed in 1885; to it has been added the protectorates. 
Southern, or delta, region of the Royal Niger 
Company whose territorial rights lapsed to the Crown from 
January 1, 1900. Lagos was incorporated in 1906. The 
Protectorate thus enlarged extends from Dahomey on the 
west to the German Cameroons on the east ; it is now, under 
the title of Southern Nigeria, administered under the Colonial 
Office as a Crown Colony. Lagos and Old Calabar, its chief 
towns, are the centres of a profitable trade in palm oil, rubber 
and ivory. 

The Niger basin above the delta has been for three-quarters 
of a century the field of British efforts — spasmodic at first, but 
latterly most persistent — at explpration, trade and political 
activity. About the year 1880 the French were pushing their 
way into the valley of the great river through the agency of 
trading companies with a strong political backing at home. 
But at Berlin the Conference accorded the protectorate of the 
Lower Niger to Great Britain, by whom it was granted to a 
Chartered Company, the Royal Niger Company. In 1890 



310 West Africa. [CH. XI. 

the claim of Great Britain was admitted to include control 
of the native kingdom of Sokoto by which the northern limit of 
the Niger Company's operations was fixed at a line drawn from 
Say, on the river, to Lake Chad where it impinged upon the 
frontier of the Cameroons. The western boundary which 
marches with that of the French possessions on the Middle 
Niger and Dahomey was only settled in 1901. The Niger 
Company was superseded, as already stated, by the direct 
authority of the Crown, which from Jan. 1900 controls 
the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria through the Colonial 
Office. The most important of the subject-populations in- 
cluded within its area is the Hausa people who, numbering 
possibly thirty millions, are the most progressive of the Negro 
races. Lokoja, 250 miles up river from the sea, is the chief 
trading post and Dunguru the new centre of administration. 
The area is about six times that of England. Both of the 
Niger Protectorates share the disability of most of our tropical 
possessions in that permanent European settlement is rendered 
impossible by the climate. The discovery of the true cause of 
malarial fever — the anopheles mosquito — has, however, gone 
far to free the West Coast and similar tropical regions from 
its worst peril. 

British Central Africa at no point touches the Indian 

Ocean, to which it has access by the Zambesi. 
Central Africa. The nuc l eus °f the possessions was formed 

by the mission stations established from 1861 
onwards on the highlands above the Shire river (the outlet 
of Lake Nyassa) which owed their origin to the work of 
Dr Livingstone. Attempts at agricultural settlement followed, 
but the country was harried by Arab slave-raiders. The 
suppression of this traffic appealed to English feeling, and 
though the Berlin Conference accepted the British interests in 
Nyassa-land as established, disputes arose with the Portuguese 
who claimed it as their hinterland. These ended in 1891 by 
a treaty recognising British sovereignty over a territory lying 



1 793 — ! 9 ! * •] British East Africa. 3 1 1 

north of the Zambesi bounded on the West and East by 
Portuguese Africa, and on the north by the Congo Free State 
and German East Africa The western (and larger) portion 
of this area, separated from Rhodesia by the Zambesi, is 
administered by the Chartered Company of B. S. Africa : the 
Shire-Nyassa region forms the Protectorate of B. C. Africa, 
directed by the Foreign Office, with its capital at Blantyre. 

The total area of B. C. Africa is about three times that of 
the United Kingdom ; its white population is little more than 
500. The products of most promise are coffee and tobacco, 
though it is believed that copper deposits of immense value 
will prove the chief source of wealth. 

The East Africa Protectorate was proclaimed in 1895, 
when the British Government took over the 
territory of the Chartered Company of East E 2J5S ca . 
Africa, formed in 1888 to secure British interests 
in the Zanzibar coast-districts ceded to English traders by the 
Sultan, and recognised at the Berlin Conference. The trade 
of Zanzibar was mainly in the hands of British Indian subjects, 
whilst English Political Residents, notably Sir John Kirk, had 
since 1866 used their efforts to suppress slave-raiding, and in 
so doing entered into treaties with native chiefs of the interior. 
When Germany intervened in East African affairs in 1885 
Great Britain secured a partial division of the respective spheres 
of influence. By the Convention of 1890 the control of the 
coast between the rivers Umba and Juba fell to England, and 
with it that of the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. But the 
main interest of the agreement lay in the rights thus obtained 
over the vast hinterland stretching N. and N.W. beyond the 
Victoria Nyanza including the district of Uganda, over which 
a Protectorate was formally declared in 1894. By it the head- 
waters of the Nile are under British control, and the southern 
frontier of Egypt marches with the Protectorate. A railway 
now completed from Mombasa (the capital and chief port of 
the B. E. Africa Protectorate) to the Lake will prove a potent 



312 Egypt and the route to the East. [CH. XI. 

agent in the opening up of a fertile and healthy region to trade 
and probably to settlement. 

It is to be noted that three motives have united to promote 
British expansion upon the Eastern watershed of Africa : mis- 
sionary and anti-slavery zeal; exploration and trade; European 
rivalry. That the diverse ambitions of the Powers were re- 
conciled without a grave crisis was due to the wise counsels 
which guided the English and German cabinets during the 
complex negotiations of 1885 — 95. 

Italian Somaliland separates the Protectorates from a British 
Egypt and sphere of influence within the actual N.E. horn 
the route to of the Continent. British Somaliland dates from 
1884; it is one of the chain of dependencies 
acquired in the interests of the security of our communications 
with the East. It is in a sense the complement of Aden on 
the opposite coast. But the most important achievement of 
this historic policy has been, in the last half century, the 
occupation of Egypt in 1882, with the subsequent re-conquest 
of the Soudan in 1892. The guardianship of Egypt and con- 
sequently of the Suez Canal was forced upon us by events, and 
accepted unwillingly by Mr Gladstone's government. 

The position of Great Britain at this most important 
gate-way of the East has been since further secured by the 
gradual establishment of British control over the entire ad- 
ministration of Egypt, by financial and industrial enterprise, 
by public works of magnitude, by the construction of the Nile 
valley railway, and by the destruction of the fanatical Dervish 
power in Nubia and the Soudan. Of the many great services 
rendered by King Edward VII to the Empire, a foremost place 
will be given in history to his aid in securing a cordial under- 
standing with France. One of the chief results of this entente 
cordiale was the frank acceptance by the French Government 
of the British position in Egypt whereby our task there is 
greatly facilitated. The work of Britain in Egypt will be 
reckoned amongst the notable contributions made by this 
country to the cause of good government in the East. 



1793 — I 9 II «] The Malay Peninsula. 313 

Possessions in Asiatic Seas. 

Aden, on the coast of Arabia, about a hundred miles east 
of the Straits of Babel Mandeb, was ceded by 

1 Aden, 1838. 

the Arabs in 1838. It forms one more link 
in the chain of posts which stretch from Gibraltar to the 
Pacific. In recent times, Aden has served as a centre of 
British influence in southern Arabia. Perim, a small island 
at the mouth of the Red Sea, had been occupied temporarily 
in 1799; it was definitely annexed in 1857. The chief im- 
portance of both these points lies in their relation to India, 
and on that account both are administered through the 
Government of Bombay. 

The historic rivalry between England and Holland in the 
Far East has ended in the virtual exclusion of English traders 
from the archipelago eastwards of Sumatra. At the end of 
the 1 8th century, the East India Company retained posts in 
that island, and held Penang off the west coast of the Malay 
Peninsula. During the Napoleonic war, Java, 
like other Dutch possessions, had fallen to p en insuia. ay 
England; but it was restored, with reluctance, 
at the Peace, as part of the bargain by which the Cape was 
formally ceded by Holland. But Englishmen were no longer 
content to see the trade of the great island-seas a monopoly 
of another nation. The possibilities of English commerce with 
China were already realized by the East India Company. It 
was deemed necessary to take a forward step to improve the 
position of British power on the main highway to the East. 
With great sagacity Sir Stamford Raffles, who had temporarily 
administered Java, fixed upon Singapore as the 
spot most suitable for the site of a naval and I 8i 9 in&apore ' 
commercial harbour. In 1819, under instruc- 
tions from Lord Hastings, then Governor General, he acquired 
the island from its native Raja. Five years later, by treaty 
with the Dutch, the district of Malacca was 
exchanged for the settlements in Sumatra, and l824 a acca ' 
the entire peninsula thus came under English 



3M Possessions in Asiatic Seas. [ch. XI. 

influence. Singapore was, in 1837, made the centre of ad- 
ministration for the three possessions — Penang, Malacca and 
Singapore itself — whose area is about that of the county of 
Suffolk. The foresight which led to the occupation of Singapore 
has been justified by the wonderful growth of its commerce and 
its importance as a coaling-station and place of call for shipping. 
The Straits Settlements, as they are called, were taken from the 
control of the Indian Government and formed into a Crown 
Colony in 1867. After 1875 the neighbouring independent 
States of the Peninsula were gradually brought under a British 
Protectorate, over which the Governor at Singapore exercises 
advisory authority. The economic conditions of the peninsula 
have been transformed by the extension of the rubber-growing 
industry. The Malay Peninsula, Singapore in particular, is 
the meeting-place of all the South-Asiatic races, Arab, Indian, 
Malay and Chinese, who under British order live side by side 
in mutual toleration. 

The importance of Singapore turns largely on its position 
The East * n tne P at ^ °^ European commerce with China. 
India Com- The East India Company sent regular voyages 
panym ma. tQ Qj 1 j na as ear ]y as ^70 ; and amid much diffi- 
culty a growing trade was carried on with the port of Canton, 
to which the Chinese rigidly confined it. When the Company's 
monopoly of this trade expired in 1834, and merchants of less 
experience in Chinese methods appeared, difficulties quickly 
arose. To secure English privileges and protection for traders, 
Hong Kong, an island, but close to the mainland and within 

reach of Canton, was obtained by cession, con- 
t8 J ongKong ' firmed by the Treaty of Nankin (1842), under 

which five ports were opened to British trade. 
In 1842 Hong Kong was declared free to the commerce of 
all European nations. Its subsequent growth has been re- 
markable. Instead of its population of 7000 fishermen it has 
now 250,000 inhabitants, mainly, of course, Chinese. British 
security, commercial freedom, nearness to Canton, and its own 
position on the great trade route from Japan and Shanghai 



1793 — ^'-J Borneo and New Guinea. 315 

to India and Europe, have contributed to the importance of 
Hong Kong; which is at the same time the principal naval 
station in the Far East. Upon the Legislative Council of 
the Colony two seats are usually occupied by Chinese repre- 
sentatives. 

In Borneo British interests date from 1609; but neither 
the English nor the Dutch East India Company 
could, owing to the piracy prevalent in those neo, ^!^ *" 
seas, and the hostility of the natives, attain any 
commercial success. Sir James Brooke (1840) founded an 
independent state under his own sovereignty in Sarawak, and 
a company of English merchants gained certain cessions of 
land in the northern end of the island (1877 — 8); the Chartered 
Company of British North Borneo which took over these latter 
rights holds a quasi-independent position. Both these states 
are under a British Protectorate. Labuan has been a Crown 
Colony since 1846. It must be noted that the richest islands 
of the Archipelago have remained a Dutch possession since 
England yielded her place in the Far East in the reign of 
James I. 

British New Guinea, the south-eastern section of the 
island, was proclaimed a Protectorate in 1884, 
at the instance of the Australian Colonies, who 0^^,, jg&j. 
were anxious lest a territory within 80 miles of 
the Queensland coast should fall into the possession of a 
European rival. It was definitely annexed as a Crown Colony 
in 1888. Under the title of the Papua territory its administra- 
tion has been handed over to the Australian Commonwealth 
since 1906. The influence of Australian opinion in determining 
colonial policy had already been manifested in the treaty, by 
which, in 1874, the Fiji Islands were acquired 
through the agency of the Governor of New 
South Wales : and the position of Great Britain in the Pacific 
Ocean has since been one of deep interest to Australian 
statesmen. 



3i6 [ch. xn. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE BRITISH POWER IN 
INDIA. 1805 — 191 1. 

The recall of Wellesley was followed by one of those 
_, .. - intervals of reaction which have so often, in the 

Policy of , ' 

Reaction. history of the Empire, succeeded a period of 

1 ° 5_I I3 * advance and consolidation. In the present case, 

it is to be remembered that the Governor General's pace in 
extending the bounds of British rule appeared bewilderingly 
fast to the Directors at home. Their hopes of steady and 
comfortable dividends were disappearing under the regime of 
one who shared Pitt's heresies about Free Trade, and would 
rarely condescend to mention the yearly 'investment' and 
native markets in his Despatches. Moreover, outside India 
House, many thoughtful observers, ignorant of the true circum- 
stances of Indian politics, felt that the grave condition of 
European politics demanded that our hands should be as free 
as possible from distant entanglements. So the Mahratta war 
was wound up with all speed, and Holkar, still in the field, 
allowed to raid at will on the Sutlej and throughout Rajputana. 
Had, indeed, the instructions of the Directors been literally 
carried out, the whole defensive system of Wellesley would 
probably have been abandoned, and the Deccan and Central 
India given up to anarchy. But the common sense of the 
Governor General (Lord Minto) prevented such a catastrophe. 



1 805—191 1.] The War in Nepal. Si 7 

The work of finally reducing the Mahrattas fell to Lord 
Hastings, who went out to Bengal in 18 13 an 
avowed opponent of the 'forward policy.' It Marquess of 
was his destiny, however, to resume and com- ^ as ^ in 8 gs ' 
plete Lord Wellesley's work : not so much from 
the motive of extending British power, as from the clear 
conviction that the interests of the Indian peoples themselves 
were most surely advanced by the maintenance of the strong 
and peaceful control of English rule. Before he left Calcutta 
in 1823 Great Britain was acknowledged as the paramount 
Power in the peninsula. 

In this task of securing order, Lord Hastings was in 
1 8 14 involved in war with Nepal. The Gurkha Thewar 
chiefs of this kingdom of jungle and mountain with Nepal, 
raided year by year the weak and defenceless x I4— 5 ' 
inhabitants of the Ganges plain. The subjects of the Nawab of 
Oudh had lived under the guarantee of British protection since 
the Treaty of 180 1. On their behalf two campaigns were 
fought. The Gurkhas were the bravest enemies whom we had 
so far met in India. The jungle and broken hill country of 
the lower Himalayan region is, perhaps, as difficult fighting 
ground for Europeans as can be found. The first year's opera- 
tions were disastrous ; but General Ochterlony, in the brilliant 
campaign of 18 15, compelled Nepal to sue for peace. That 
part of the hill district which forms the outer range of the 
Himalayas on the South-west of the defeated state was ceded. 
By this treaty Simla and a region extending to the Sutlej came 
into English possession. Our relations with Nepal are still 
governed by this instrument of 1815; and the Gurkhas have 
proved faithful and courageous soldiers of the Queen. 

The Pindaris were next subdued. They were not a 
nationality, like the Mahrattas, although they p-ndans 

had succeeded to their place as the organised destroyed, 
freebooters of Central India. The nucleus of 
their forces consisted probably of restless and nomadic 




318 The Marquess Hastings, 1813 — 1823. 

Mahrattas, but by far the larger number was composed of ad- 
venturers, outlaws, criminals — the general offscourings of native 
States, to whom the newly imposed order of British India was 
intolerable. Their audacity had grown as the firm grip of 
English administration had become relaxed since Wellesley's 
recall. Though not openly countenanced they 
states impH- were secretly encouraged by the Mahratta states 
of Poona, Indore and Nagpur : and their raids 
in 1811 — 1815 were a source of great misery and havoc from 
Rajputana to Orissa. Lord Hastings determined to rid India 
of this standing menace. Armies of 120,000 men were 
formed; Sindia, restless, and ready for treachery, was over- 
awed. By a series of actions the various bands of Pindaris 
were kept apart, followed up and destroyed. 

But in 181 7 the Peshwa, chafing under the restraints of the 
Treaty of Bassein, by which his power had been 
revoit s P ^8r7 Va rescued from destruction, rose suddenly in rebel- 
lion. The Courts of Indore, where Holkar's heir 
was still a boy, and of Nagpur allied themselves with the Peshwa. 
The Governor General thus found himself con- 
indore P foiiow. fronted by a war with the whole Mahratta Con- 
federacy, with the exception of Sindia who, 
awaiting the progress of events, did not move. But whilst the 
Mahrattas were now less formidable — they had no Chief of the 
ability of the great Holkar, who died in 181 1 — the British 
were far better able to cope with them. One pitched battle 
and two minor but crucial engagements crushed the revolt. 
„, ' , . The Peshwa, the originator of the war, was first 

ThePeshwa's . . 

power broken dealt with. His office was abolished ; his do- 
up ' x T ' minions annexed to the Bombay presidency ; he 

himself was made prisoner, and lived till the eve of the Mutiny, 

a pensioner of the Company at Cawnpore. At 
troi at Nagpur Nagpur and Indore infant Princes were placed 
and indore, in power, under the immediate control of a 

British Resident officer; but no annexation of 



1805 — 19 1 1.] Tlie Mahratta Power destroyed. 319 

territory was made. Rajputana, relieved of the pressure of 
Holkar and his captains, was taken under British protection, 
without interference with the internal rule of the Hindoo Rajas. 
In place of the Peshwa, the Raja of Sattara, a direct descendant 
of the great Sivaji (see p. 177), was restored to the titular head- 
ship of the Mahratta race, with the support of a Resident. 
The policy of Wellesley of bringing the Mahratta 
power under effective control, and of relieving ratta power 
Central India of the terror of their raids, was finally broken - 
now finally accomplished. It was a great act of pacification, 
the indispensable condition of settled order in India. The 
ceded territory, of which Poona was the capital, submitted with 
much content to its new masters. No portion The British 
of India had suffered more from perpetual war administra- 
and from civil misrule. A quarter of a century 
later hardly any province was so prosperous. All hereditary 
rights, ownerships, and religious privileges were scrupulously 
respected. Revenue was placed on a basis intelligible to the 
taxpayer, and was honestly collected. Lands long abandoned 
were brought into cultivation; villages and towns were once 
more peopled as life and property were felt to be secure. 
Mountstuart Elphinstone, one of the ablest administrators that 
India has known, was entrusted with the pacification of the 
district, and his memory was long treasured amongst the 
people. The district of Khandeish, on the northern border, 
was rescued by Major Outram from a similar state of desola- 
tion. Under the Moghuls it has been noted for its fertility. 
Outram's service, in reducing the wild hill-men, the Bheels, to 
order, by enlisting their young men in a corps of irregular 
cavalry, and winning the rest to a life of peace and industry, 
was one of the characteristic benefits which British rule has 
conferred on India. 

But the policy of Lord Hastings was harshly opposition 
judged at home by critics who could not realise Hastings' 
the risks involved in chronic anarchy in India, p°i> c y- 



320 Lord Amherst, 1823 — 1828. [CH. XII. 

and the utter inability of the Mahratta Powers to control it. 
There were, however, other grounds for the ill-will of the 
Directors and of the narrow type of politician towards the 
Governor-General. 

For Hastings had clearly perceived the position of England 

in relation to her great possessions in the East. 
aims'inTndfa. ^ was impossible for him to regard our vast 

responsibilities there in the light of a reservoir 
of profit to Proprietors in Europe. The transition from the 
Trading Company to the Sovereign Power had been made in 
fact, if not in form. Lord Hastings held a truly Imperial view 
of his duties. He not only extended, but he deepened, the 

foundations of British rule. In the first place, 
poHcy. mternal ne ra i se d tri e standard of civil administration by 

according promotion to ability and integrity, and 
not to influence. His own immense industry and keen sense 
of responsibility reacted upon his subordinates. Next, to him 
was due the first attempt at the organisation of Native educa- 
tion under British auspices, by the creation of vernacular 
schools. Thirdly, he made the Anglo-Indian Press virtually 
free, and welcomed the appearance of the first native news- 
paper. His attitude on such subjects was not in accord with 
dominant opinion in England, and was probably the true cause 
of the opposition to his policy, which led to his return home 
in 1823. 

His successor, Lord Amherst, was forced into a policy of 

annexation in a new quarter. The first war with 
hersi*, 1823^8: Burmah was in no sense of our seeking. The 
First Burmese Court of Ava was at once the feeblest and most 

War. 

pretentious of the States which had taken up 
arms against the English Power. The King had, in 18 18, 
demanded from Lord Hastings one half of Bengal ; and in a 
strange ignorance of his own strength in 1824 declared war 
against the Company. Lord Amherst planned three campaigns : 
against Rangoon by sea, against Assam by river, and against 



I So 5 — 1 9 1 1 .] Lord W. Bentinck and Indian Progress. 3 2 t 

Arakan by land. In the end the Burmese were severely 
punished by the loss of Assam, in the hill country of Bengal, 
and of the coast districts of Arakan (always a seat of disorder) 
and Tenasserim. Burmah retained the valley of the Irrawaddi 
intact. 

For twelve years there was peace in India : and of that 
period Lord William Bentinck was the central 
figure. The nature of the services which he Ben°tinckand 
rendered to Indian progress is recorded in the Indian p">- 

. • . „, gress, 182&— 35. 

inscription upon his statue at Calcutta, composed 
by Lord Macaulay. He ' infused into Oriental despotism the 
spirit of British freedom'; 'never forgot that the end of 
government is the welfare of the governed ' ; ' abolished cruel 
rites'; 'effaced humiliating distinctions'; 'allowed liberty to 
the expression of public opinion.' Free from the anxieties 
of war he devoted his undivided attention to the securing of 
the well-being of Indian populations. 

His relations with Mysore illustrate his conception of the 
responsibility of England towards dependent 
States. We saw how Lord Wellesley in 1799 M yso r * ajaof 
restored a boy-prince of the Hindoo dynasty to 
his throne. After his assumption of full power in 181 1 the 
Raja had proved an unworthy ruler. By waste of the re- 
sources of his State, and indifference to all sense of public 
duty, he had brought the kingdom to a condition of misery 
and rebellion. The British Government was, by terms of the 
Treaty of 1799, responsible for the security of the throne. But 
the Governor-General refused to maintain the Raja in control 
of his Government at the expense of the inhabitants, for 
whose welfare, he maintained, the English power was not 
less responsible than for the safety of their sovereign. The 
Raja was, therefore, temporarily displaced from authority, a 
fixed proportion only of the revenue was assigned to him, 
and the rest, with the entire administration, passed into the 
hands of English Commissioners, under whom order and 

W. E- 21 



322 Lord W. Bentinck, 1828— 1835. [CH. XII. 

prosperity were soon restored. There was no annexation, 
no increase of burdens upon the Mysore State ; the step was 
taken simply in fulfilment of a responsibility to the general 
well-being of the community, as superseding that owed to 
the individual Raja : a distinction which we shall find strongly 
marked in Indian administration. The Indian Government 
has since (1881) found itself able to hand back the reins of 
authority to the successor of the Raja displaced by Lord 
W. Bentinck. The little hill-state of Coorg, in the extreme 
south of India, was admitted to the empire by the urgent 
wish of its inhabitants, who could, in this way only, escape 
the tyranny and exactions of their Raja : for in India, 
then as now, the one guarantee of order and liberty is 
the protection of a Government strong enough to enforce 
them. 

The internal reforms of the Governor-General were nume- 
rous and important. To him were due the 
Reform"? abolition of Suttee, or the immolation of Hindoo 
widows on the funeral pile of their husbands : 
and the rooting out of the Thugs, or hereditary societies of 
professional assassins, the standing terror of peaceful travellers. 
Steps were taken to introduce native officials into judicial 
courts and the Civil Service. In the matter of native edu- 
cation, especially in medicine, in the policy of freedom of 
the Press, and in careful control of the Revenue, Lord 
William Bentinck followed in the steps of Lord Hastings. 
The Land Settlement of the North-West Provinces — a far 
more thorough piece of work than that of Bengal in the 
previous century — was effected after a detailed survey of an 
area of fifty millions of acres, supporting twenty-three millions 
of people. Steam communication with England, then first 
mooted, was ardently urged by the Governor-General, and as 
steadily opposed by the Directors as a ' dangerous ' measure. 
The renewal of the Company's Charter in 1833 was only 
secured by the abandonment of all exclusive rights to Indian 



1805— 191 !•] The North-West Frontier. 323 

trade and by the great permission to Europeans to settle in 
the peninsular. 

The path of internal progress was suddenly barred by 
Lord Bentinck's successor, who initiated the Lord 
period of conflict involved in the effort to Auckland, 
attain a definite and secure frontier on the 
North-west of British India. The end is still „. .. _. 

The North- 

unattained and forms the great problem of West Frontier. 
Indian defence. 

At the period when Lord Hastings had pushed back the 
limits of British dominion to the Sutlej by the treaty with 
Nepal in 181 5, there were three nations who held in their 
hands the peace of North- Western India : the Punjab and 
the upper courses of the Indus were held by the Sikhs ; the 
lower valley of the Indus, by the Sind tribes; the mountain 
chains beyond, by the Afghans. The advance of Russia into 
Central Asia, which has now brought her to the northern 
foot of the great mountain barrier of India, was then be- 
ginning to cause alarm in Calcutta. It was resolved to 
forestall the coming danger by acquiring a direct 
control over Afghan politics. It is easy for us controi'of 
to see, in the light of experience, how futile was Afghanistan, 
such a design under the conditions of the time. 
Afghanistan was removed from the British base by enormous 
distances ; it was, from a military point of view, a country of 
extreme difficulty; its inhabitants were a fighting race, hardy, 
and most tenacious of their independence. Moreover, their 
ffont was protected by two other peoples, who, though not 
friendly to the Afghan, would sooner or later resent the 
establishment of the English military power in their rear. 
One of these nations, the Sikhs, with the finest native army 
India had seen for a century, stood in the direct path from 
the Ganges valley to Kabul. Sind blocked the more southerly 
way by Quetta and Kandahar. 

In 1837, Lord Auckland, the new Governor-General, put 

21 — 2 



324 Lord Attckland, 1836 — 1841. [CH. XII. 

forward a dethroned Ameer, Shah Shuja, then a fugitive on 

The First British territory, in opposition to the reigning 

Afghan War, prince at Kabul, Dost Mahommed ; and war at 

once followed. It must be borne in mind that 
this "step was taken in defiance of all the best expert opinion 
in India. As Runjeet Singh, the Sikh Ruler, refused passage 
to the British forces, invasion was made by way of Sind and 
Kandahaj. Dost Mahommed fled; Shah Shuja was restored 
(1839); and, with an English Resident installed at Kabul 
with a protecting force, it seemed as though Afghanistan were 
secured. Kabul was occupied in this way for two years : then 
the Afghans grew restless , they once more chased Shah Shuja 
from the throne. Englishmen were murdered, the Resident 
amongst them. The British garrison retreated, were overtaken 
in the Khyber Pass, and one solitary survivor reached Jella- 
habad (1842). An avenging army occupied Kabul a second 
time ; but Shah Shuja had been murdered. The idea of control 
was given up and Dost Mahommed was allowed to ascend 
his throne. A policy, mistaken in itself, had been, in its exe- 
cution, hopelessly mismanaged. The invasion was an attempt 
to anticipate remote and problematical dangers, by men who 
had taken no pains to study the difficulties of the task and 
had not the needful resource or tenacity to meet them when 
they arose. 

Though the disasters in the field had no effect on native 

opinion in India, a desire to wipe out the stain 
of A sind X ^&« n °f * a i mre ma y nave contributed to bring about 

the war for the reduction of Sind in 1843, tne 
grounds of which seem hardly sufficient. The operations were 
short and effective, and Sind was annexed. 

The Sikh war, which had for some time been looming 

ahead, began in 1845, and, after a respite of four 
ware, ^5-9. years, ended in 1849 ^th the incorporation of 

the Punjab in British India. The Sikhs, a 
religious Hindoo sect rather than a nation, had had a long 



1 805 — 1 9 1 1 .] T/ie Settlement of the Punjab. 325 

history. They had suffered much under Aurungzebe, but on 
the break up of the Moghul Empire they had become a 
territorial power, aiming at independence both of Kabul and 
of Delhi. Runjeet Singh, the true founder of the Sikh king- 
dom, took Peshawar from the Afghans, and captured the lofty 
valleys of Kashmir. His army was not a rabble, like those 
of Haidarabad or Oudh, but a first-rate fighting machine, often 
compared, in religious fervour and martial spirit, with Crom- 
well's Ironsides. When Runjeet Singh died in 1839, the policy 
of friendliness to the English was abandoned. Intrigue and 
disruption now distracted the country. Ministers were crea- 
tures of the army which remained the sole power of the State. 
In 1845 tne generals decided on an invasion of British terri- 
tory. One campaign, marked by four great battles followed; 
by the last of these, Sobraon, the Sikhs were driven across 
the Sutlej, and Lahore, the capital, then surrendered. Lord 
Hardinge, the Governor-General, was content with proclaiming 
a Protectorate; the Sikh army was reduced, and a Regency 
formed, under the supervision of the Resident, Major Lawrence, 
with whose name (as Sir Henry Lawrence) the pacification 
of the Punjab will always be associated. . The Protectorate, 
however, was a failure ; the Council was corrupt, the Queen- 
mother unworthy of respect, the army still strong enough to 
resent defeat. Amid clashing intrigues fanaticism broke out; 
Lawrence was absent ; British officers were murdered by 
official orders. The Afghans promised support and the Sikh 
generals rushed again into war (1849). Lord Dalhousie was 
now Governor-General. The defeat of Chilianwalla was re- 
stored by the victory of Gujerat, in which the Sikh army was 
simply destroyed. The Punjab was thereupon annexed. 

The settlement of the Punjab under the two brothers, 
Henry and John Lawrence, is one of the 
striking successes of British Indian rule. Here ment of the 
there was no old and complex civilisation to Pun J" b 
purify and adapt to English standards. A territory of the area 



326 Lord Dalhousie, 1848 — 1856. [ch. XII. 

of England, inhabited by four millions of people, was, before 
Lord Dalhousie left India, transformed into the model province 
of the Dependency. Disarmament was first effected : then 
the protection of the district at the foot of the hills secured by 
forts and moveable detachments. The problem of the moun- 
tain frontier had begun. Then a simple and intelligible 
Code of law was prepared. Thuggee was rigorously stamped 
out. In true Roman fashion the basis of order was laid by 
the speedy building of roads and bridges. Cultivation was 
enormously increased by works of irrigation on a scale un- 
known outside India. The Land Settlement was prepared with 
the advantage of previous experience in other provinces. The 
tax, as it fell on the cultivator, was lighter by one half than 
that paid under Sikh rule ; hence, with the advent of order, 
vast areas were once more brought under the plough, and 
the Punjab became the great wheat region of 

province' 1 India. To the details of this great constructive 
work, the true conquest of the Punjab, Dalhousie 
paid unremitting attention ; and in its success he took the 
greatest pride. The reward came when in the crisis of the 
Mutiny the Punjab stood firm, and its native regiments re- 
conquered Delhi from the revolted Sepoys. 

The second Burmese war arose, in 1852, out of grievances 

_ „ of British and Indian traders at Rangoon. Intent 

The Second . ... 

Burmese War, as Lord Dalhousie was on maintaining peace, 
l8sa * the refusal of all redress compelled war. A 

short campaign put the Indian expedition in possession of the 
lower valley of the Irrawaddi, which, with its important port of 
Rangoon, was now annexed. No part of British India has 
shown in a more striking way what peace and security can do 
to develope industry, wealth and population, than the sea-board 
of Burmah. 

Two other spheres of Lord Dalhousie's activity demand 
notice : his attitude towards the Protected States, and his policy 
in internal affairs. It was his conviction that it was a vital 



1805 — 191 1.] Ttie Native States. 327 

part of the mission of England in India to establish the principle 
that the rights of rulers are limited by the corre- „ J „ , 

1 ■ r Lord Dal- 

sponding claim of their subjects to good govern- housie and 
ment. He proceeded to enforce this axiom on Native rulera - 
the extinction of the direct line of succession to the thrones of 
Sattara and of Nagpur, which befell during his term of office. 
The question was raised whether in the case of States which 
had been created by the free bounty of the Government like 
Sattara (see p. 305), or restored after just forfeit like Nagpur 
(see p. 304), the Governor-General was not entitled, in the 
interests of the subjects of such States, to assume 
the sovereignty which had now lapsed by death. ^^ triM 
The Raja of Nagpur had left no heir, either 
lineal or adopted. In Sattara a death-bed adoption of a child- 
heir had been declared; and by Hindoo law 
such adoption carried with it the full rights of 
son-ship. Lord Dalhousie, admitting such a claim to be valid 
in private persons, refused to accept it in case of sovereignty. 
The people of Sattara had paid heavily for their Raja ; and on 
the principle of 'the good of the governed' the Governor- 
General declared the line of the Raja extinct, and the State 
escheated to the Queen. Nagpur, or Berar, of 
which it was the capital, lapsed in the same way, 
in the absence of any royal claimant. This ' doctrine of lapse ' 
was warmly debated in India; the historic right of adoption 
was dearly prized by the Hindoos; and the extinction of 
Native administrations was regretted by many who saw that it 
resulted in the exclusion of educated natives of position from a 
share in the government of their own countries. 

The deposition of the Nawab of Oudh was brought about 
on the same grounds, after the most careful 
review of the history and the internal situation ™£ State of 
of that kingdom. The Nawabs had undoubtedly 
been faithful to the English rule. On the other hand, they 
were, as princes, contemptible, rapacious, and utterly indifferent 



328 Lord Canning, 1856 — 1862. [ch. xn. 

to public duty. The British Residents at Lucknow had long 
complained of evils that were of a hundred years' standing, of 
corruption of public officers so general and so inveterate, that 
the misery of the people could only be relieved by a revolution 
in the State. Lord Dalhousie, after grave reflection, and with 
some anxiety, yet confident in the broad justice of the step, 
decided to pension and remove the Nawab. 

The general work of the administration was marked by the 
same lofty sense of responsibility. The Civil 
migration!" servants of the Company — the minor Judges, 
and the collectors of revenue — were, with his 
cordial support, now selected by competition instead of by 
favour. A scheme for education of boys and of girls in State- 
aided schools was carried through in the teeth of prejudice; 
and a project of higher teaching by Universities and Colleges 
was sketched out. The irrigation works of the Punjab were 
rivalled by those of the Ganges valley. The trunk line of 
railway from Calcutta to Delhi was planned, and an Indian 
' railway-policy ' drawn out and pressed upon the Directors at 
home. The Public Works Department, upon whose achieve- 
ments the food of millions of peasants now depends, was under 
Lord Dalhousie organised as a permanent Department of 
State. The Governor-General, worn out by his exertions, 
returned to England in 1856, and died, still a young man, four 
years later. He ranks with Warren Hastings and Wellesley as 
a greater builder of the Empire in the East. 

We have now reached the period of the Sepoy Mutiny, the 
, , „ causes and nature of which it is important to 

Lord Can- r 

ning, 1856— understand. Early in 1857 warnings were re- 
ceived by Lord Canning, the new Governor- 
General, of impending trouble. There were circulated, and 
. superstitiously believed, certain predictions of 
1857: its the downfall of the ruling Power on the com- 

symptoms. pletion of its century of rule {i.e. since Plassey, 

1757) in Bengal. Calumnies of most extraordinary nature 



1805 — 191 1.] The Causes of the Mutiny. 329 

were spread and accepted with credulity. Behind all this 
there was much intrigue at work in Native Courts and amongst 
discontented politicians, initiated by the Moghul princes still 
keeping state at Delhi. 

Little effect, however, would have been produced but for 
other and more serious causes. It is undoubtedly 
true that the very passion tor honest government 
which animated Lord Dalhousie had stirred up discontent 
amongst those who benefited most by his policy. He had not 
allowed — as Lawrence did in the Punjab — for the intense 
conservatism of Oriental races, to whom oppression from their 
own kin is preferable sometimes to freedom at the hand of 
foreigners. The interference with the right of adoption roused 
grave suspicion when it was seen that it resulted in the aggran- 
disement of British dominion. Lord Canning was careful to 
confirm this right when the day of pacification came in 1859. 
The violent changes in Oudh, well-meant from the English 
standpoint but injudicious in their suddenness, had been ill 
received. Moreover, it had been unwise to leave the Moghul 
as nominal sovereign in the ancient capital, Delhi, where his 
enormous wealth and the prestige of his name enabled his house- 
hold to create a network of anti-British intrigue. Insignificant 
as he now was in a military or political sense, the Moghul 
had not been forgotten : he stood for legitimate and traditional 
supremacy in India. There were, too, other dispossessed 
rulers or their representatives : the Nawab of Oudh, the Raja of 
Mysore, and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the last Peshwa : 
and these were all ready to take a hand in treachery. At 
the same time the English regiments were just at the moment 
unduly weak, and their complement of officers had been re- 
duced by the needs of the various new administrations in the 
Central Provinces, Punjab and Oudh. Perhaps Indian society 
had been passing too quickly through a period of change ; the 
British temper was restless and pushing; steam, electricity, 
education, newspapers, betokened a future still more disturbed. 



330 Lord Canning, 1856 — 1862. [ch. xn. 

About January, 1857, it was rumoured in the barracks that 
the new rifle cartridges had been greased with 
break at " the fat of pigs and cows to contaminate the 
Meerut, May religious purity of the Sepoys. During March 
and April, in certain regiments, insubordination 
became frequent. On May 10th the native troops at Meerut 
broke out into open mutiny. Their first step was to march to 
Delhi, some 40 miles distant, to place themselves under the 
authority of the Moghul. The outbreak was probably prema- 
ture, a concerted rising having been arranged for a somewhat 
later date. But the news spread, and the Mutiny had begun. 
The rising was mainly confined to the army; only at Delhi, 
in Oudh and in Rohilkhand was the populace 

Character- . . 

istics of th« seriously affected. In the next place, the Mutiny 
did not spread beyond the line of garrisons 
stationed from Benares up the Ganges valley, and on to 
Peshawar. The Sikh regiments remained loyal. In the Cen- 
tral Provinces the trouble was limited to the Ganges plain. 
Bombay, Madras, and Lower Bengal itself were untouched by 
it. The Nizam, under the influence of a sagacious prime 
minister, did not move. Rajputana was quiet. 

Further, the crisis was sharp and short. The 10th of May 
was the date of the first outbreak. Within a month the area 
of disaffection was fairly well revealed. The Cawnpore murders 
took place on June 27 : on Sept. 20 Delhi was recovered, and 
the Moghul a prisoner. Lucknow was relieved on Nov. 16. 
Th dan er Before the end of the year all danger was over, 
at an end, though Sir Colin Campbell and Sir Hugh Rose 

' x 57 ' had still work to do in stamping out the last 

embers of revolt. There is no space to treat of the heroic 
incidents and personalities of the struggle, which left England 
more firmly established in her Indian empire than before. 

The end of One immediate effect of the Mutiny was 

the East India the decision to terminate once for all the dual 

Company, 

X858. control of the Crown and the East India 



1805 — 19 1 1.] TJie Abolition of tlie Company. 331 

Company in India. By an Act of 1858 — under which 

India is still administered — the Company was brought to 

an end. The administration was now directly 

The new 
assumed by the Crown, acting through a Prin- Government 

cipal Secretary of State, a member of the of Ind,a- 
Ministry, and responsible to the Queen and country for 
the general policy of Indian government. The Secretary for 
India is assisted by a Council of expert advisers sitting in 
London. The Governor-General, with the new title of Viceroy, 
acts under the instructions and subject to the approval of the 
Secretary of State. He is assisted by a double Council ; the 
Executive Council, a direct descendant of the old Council of 
Calcutta, as Hastings knew it, consisting of officials, and the 
Legislative Council, which includes in addition a certain num- 
ber of non-official members, European and Native. The former 
body corresponds in a sense to the Cabinet of a constitutional 
country : the latter to the Legislative Council of a Crown 
Colony. The old Presidencies of Madras and Bombay were 
left with many marks of their historic equality with Bengal. 
Codes of Law, in which British, Anglo-Indian, and Native 
elements all find a place, were carefully.drawn up and enforced 
in 1860-61. The Civil Service gained in status by the changes 
of 1858. It is through the strong, upright, and experienced 
men who from one end of India to the other, hold in their 
hands the local administration of justice, order, revenue, and 
public works, that the influence of British rule most makes 
itself felt. 

The proclamation of the sovereignty of the Queen was 
made at a grand Durbar or gathering of princes 
at Allahabad on November 1, 1858. The decla- sovereignty" S 
ration of the royal guarantee of toleration, of pro 8 claimed . 
equal justice, and, to all but actual murderers, 
of amnesty, effectually pacified India. One step alone re- 
mained to be taken. The Moghui had now been deposed, 
and his dynasty and the empire whose tradition he represented 



332 The Empress of India. [ch. XII. 

came to an end. The Moghul Empire had in a real sense 

served as a bond amongst the divergent races, 

ship to the" faiths, and governments of the great Indian con- 

Moghui tinent. The East India Company had, since the 

administration of Lord Wellesley, controlled both 

Delhi and the Emperor; had been in reality itself the 

' Corporate Emperor ' of India in his place. It was, therefore, 

at this time strongly urged that the Queen should claim the 

res now vacant title, and declare herself Empress of 

of India, India. But not until 1877 was the real position 

of Queen Victoria, as the inheritor of more than 

the ancient dominion of the Moghul, formally proclaimed by 

that title which both appeals to the imagination and the 

historic sense of the peoples of India, and best expresses the 

nature of her power. 

The history of India since the Mutiny, though marked by 
considerable events, has in the main followed the lines of policy 
and development laid down by the great builders of the Anglo- 
indi n Indian Empire during the first half of the 19th 

progress since century. More than twenty years of peace 
l8s ^' ensued after the crisis of 1857. Under two 

Viceroys of distinction, Lord Lawrence and Lord Mayo, 
India made great strides in matters of internal progress. 
The Orissa Famine of 1866 compelled attention to the diffi- 
culties arising from the spread of agriculture and the increase 
of population — the natural results of orderly government. 
For the first time in Indian history officials were held personally 
responsible for taking every means to avert death from starva- 
tion ; roads, irrigation canals, and railways were extended ; an 
Agricultural department, which has since become of immense 
value to Indian prosperity, was established. Lord Mayo, whose 
career was cut short by assassination, initiated the methods of 
local self-government and of Provincial finance which have 
done much to keep the Administration in touch with local 
needs and to foster local resources and native interest in affairs. 



x 8o5 19 1 1-] Indian Expansion. 333 

In 1875 — 6 tne Pl "i nce of Wales paid a State visit to India, 

the political effect of which was further enforced by the great 

Durbar at Delhi of January, 1877, when the Queen was 

proclaimed Empress of India. But the splendour of this 

impressive ceremonial was dimmed by the great famine which 

desolated Southern India, causing the loss of five million lives. 

During this period the territorial expansion of India had 

made but little further progress. The Gaekwar Indian 

of Baroda was deposed under Lord Northbrook's Expansion, 

\ • 1 ij*i 1, 1858 — 1880. 

viceroyalty (1872—6) for mis-rule and disloyalty, 

but his possessions were not annexed. With the arrival of 

Lord Lytton the old question of the N.W. frontier was 

re-opened. Shere Ali, the ruler of Afghanistan, who had been 

acknowledged the rightful Ameer by Lord Lawrence and Lord 

Mayo, proving unfaithful to his engagements to Great Britain, 

was deposed and soon afterwards died (1878). Then followed 

the murder of the British Resident at Cabul, an invasion of 

the country, and the establishment of Abdurrahman (1880) 

under British sanction. He proved an Ameer of singular 

force, repressing revolt, and maintaining his 

• 1 i- j x> Afghan 

internal independence with a strong hand, ay War . 
our agreements of 1880 the Ameer holds no 
relations with foreign powers other than India, which controls 
the main passes leading into the hills, and provides the ruler 
with a large yearly subsidy. Although the relations of the 
Viceroy with Abdurrahman always demanded delicate handling 
the British government found in him a strong but friendly 
prince, who realised that his interests coincided with those 
of Great Britain, and was able to maintain the internal 
independence of his country against India and Russia alike. 
He died in 1901. 

The relations of the Indian government with the peoples of 
the mountain region to the South West of 

it • i_ tu~ »„„h, Baluchiatan, 

Afghanistan have caused her anxiety. The treaty lg?6 
of 1876 with the Khan of Kalat, the chief of the 



334 India since 1880. [CH. XII. 

loosely organised confederacy of Baluchistan, provided that he 
should enter into no engagements with other foreign Powers, 
that British troops should occupy Quetta, the strong post 
which commands the Bolan Pass, and that they should be 
admitted to other strategic points if necessary to the security 
of order and independence. A subsidy is granted to the Khan 
from Indian revenues. On these Agreements with the rulers 
of the great mountain barrier the problem of Indian defence 
largely turns. 

Since the settlement of these two frontier questions effected 
in 1880 the events of Indian history fall into 
i8&y entS SmCe f° ur principal groups. The first is, the develop- 
ment, by legislation and private enterprise, of 
the internal resources of the country, through the agency of 
Public Works, the Agricultural Department, Railway extension, 
by normal growth of cultivation, by forestry, by the jute industry 
and tea-planting, by gold and coal mining. Secondly, legislation 
has secured extension of openings afforded to Natives in 
municipal, judicial, political and military careers, and an in- 
creasing freedom of the Press. The nomination of distinguished 
Indian gentlemen to positions upon the Council of the Secretary 
of State and the Council of the Viceroy, and the introduction 
of an important elective element upon the Provincial Councils, 
dating from 1907 and 1909, are steps of great significance in 
Indian administration. The inevitable conflict of eastern and 
western ideals and methods fanned by personal ambitions led 
from 1905 to a certain degree of political unrest, confined 
chiefly to a particular class of Hindoo journalist or fanatic 
Brahmin, but taken in relation to the great population of India 
of slight importance. The outstanding fact of the present con- 
dition of the dependency is its steady growth in economic 
prosperity. Thirdly, a conflict, severe and all but continuous, 
has been waged against the afflictions of plague and famine 
which have exceeded any recorded during the past 400 
years. Lastly, there is the group of events arising from the 



1805 — 191 1.] Indian Expansion. 335 

enlargement or the determination of frontiers. These are 
partly diplomatic, such as the agreement with Russia as to 
the Pamirs, where the two empires meet. They are, however, 
chiefly military in character; the Burmese War of 1884 — 5 
resulting in the complete absorption of the old kingdom of 
Ava into British India; the military operations involved by 
outbreaks in Manipur (1892), Chitral (1895), an( ^ along the 
hill country where Afghanistan and Baluchistan join British 
territory (1897); and the measures taken to abate piracy, and 
gun-running in the Persian Gulf. The urgency of the frontier 
problem, and the necessity for a steady, sympathetic, and in- 
formed policy in this critical region led Lord Curzon in 1901 
to create a new N.W. frontier Province under immediate 
control of political officers*. 

• The administration of British India is now conducted through thirteen 
Local Governments and Administrations, of which two, those of Madras 
and Bombay, correspond to the old Presidencies. Bengal is divided ; a 
new province known as Eastern Bengal and Assam was erected in 1905. 
The others are : the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, The Punjab, 
Burma, The Central Provinces and Berar, the N. W. Frontier Province, 
the small provinces of Ajmer-Merwara in Rajputana, and Coorg which 
adjoins Mysore, British Baluchistan, and The Andamans. In certain of 
these Provinces a Legislative Council, partly elective, has been set up. 
Each is administered by a Governor (Madras, Bombay) or a Lieut. -Governor, 
or a Chief Commissioner. 



336 English Opinion and Colonial Policy. 



Note on English opinion upon Colonial 
Policy: 1815 — 191 1. 

In treating of the rise and fall of the first colonial possession 
of Great Britain we had occasion to trace the changes through 
which home opinion passed in regard to the significance of 
our empire over-sea. The lack of interest or imagination or 
sentiment concerning the colonists and their part in British 
history was, as we saw, largely responsible for the loss of 
America. The nineteenth century has been coincident with 
the development of a new expansion of the English race and 
name : and this period also has been marked by variations of 
opinion amongst our statesmen and the public upon the 
meaning and the importance of empire. The century opened 
with a generally pessimist view of the whole phenomenon. 
India was believed to be worth retaining; and the nation's 
credit seemed bound up with the maintenance of the conquest 
so romantically secured. Men of first-rate ability were attracted 
to its administration ; the benefits of the Pax Britannica to its 
crowded populations were undeniable; there was, after 1805, 
no risk of foreign complications involved, the wealth accruing 
to England from the peninsula was in tact considerable, and 
was popularly much exaggerated. Since Lord Wellesley's 
recall Indian politics ceased, in any serious sense, to be a 
matter of British partisan interest. But the relations of Britain 
to colonies of men of her own stock have been inevitably 
complicated by recollections of the struggle of 1776 and by 
special difficulties created by economic, racial and political 
divergencies. At the close of the great war in 18 15 England 
found herself possessed of a new empire far larger than the one 
she had lost forty years before: Canada, Australia and the 
Cape Colony if not as yet of great promise had at least 
possibilities, and could accommodate whatever surplus popu- 



English Opinion and Colonial Policy. 337 

lation the Mother country desired to part with. And in fact 
the economic condition of Great Britain at the time encouraged 
projects of emigration, which, however, seemed to set steadily 
in the direction of the American Republic. To aid in solving 
the industrial and agricultural crises of the twenty-five years 
which succeeded the Peace of Paris (181 5 — 1840), a group of 
English public men promoted schemes of systematic coloni- 
sation, in which politicians and economists took part. Cape 
Colony, Canada and Australia all received most valuable aid 
in this direction. But although Lord Durham (of Canadian 
fame), Sir William Molesworth and other politicians, mainly 
Liberals, urged the community of interests between the old 
country and the daughter colonies, a new school of which 
Bright and Cobden, Lord Granville, Mr Goldwin Smith, 
Mr Disraeli were representatives, took up the position that 
it was inevitable and perhaps desirable that the great self- 
governing colonies should regard it as their destiny to fall 
away from parental control when they became conscious of 
their power to stand alone. The question became more 
complex as the colonies hedged themselves by customs barriers 
against the Mother country, giving her no preference over 
other nations, whilst the Free-trade policy of Britain admitted 
colonial products on very different terms. At the same time 
the Colonists drifted now and again into wars in which the 
British tax-payers had to find most of the money, only to reap 
colonial ill-will in the settlements which followed. The new 
sentiment, for it was hardly an avowed principle, which thus 
actuated English opinion had as one result the steady with- 
drawal of imperial troops from the duty of colonial defence 
(1867 — 1873). The imperial tie was perhaps at its weakest 
during this period, when the interest of English people was 
chiefly occupied in the energetic programme of internal reforms 
initiated under Mr Gladstone's first ministry (1868 — 1874). 
The Canadian Federation was, indeed, a witness that colonial 
and imperial well-being were identical, for the most potent 

W. E. 22 



338 English Opinion and Colonial Policy. 

motive to that far-reaching event was a determination to avoid 
absorption of Canada by the United States. 

The visit of the Prince of Wales to India ((875) seems to 
indicate a turning point in sentiment both in England and in 
her daughter communities. Reaction was however manifest 
in the surrender of the Transvaal in 1881, and in the failure 
to relieve Gordon in 1885. Two books of differing worth, 
Froude's Oceana, and Seeley's Expansion of England — both 
thoroughly distasteful to the older school — preceded very shortly 
the sudden intervention of Germany and France in the field of 
extra-European development (1884). In Africa, farther India, 
and the Pacific it was demonstrated that other Powers prized 
colonial possession. South Africa and Australia became 
alarmed. Surprise was frankly confessed at home that the 
Australians cared at all about New Guinea. In 1885 the 
Berlin Conference determined the sphere of influence of the 
chief European Powers in Africa. From that year dates the 
growth of a new imperialist sense of the mission of England 
which found characteristic expression in the Indian and 
Colonial Exhibition held in London. The Royal Jubilee 
Celebration of the same year (1887) was utilised for the 
purpose of conferences with Colonial statesmen, when questions 
of defence, of commercial policy, and of a possible federal 
bond between various members of the Empire were tentatively 
discussed. The expansion of British interests in West, East 
and South Africa, which occurred during these years (1884 — 
1890), stimulated the new current of feeling, which gradually 
expelled the laissez-faire attitude of the Manchester school. 
The troubles in the Transvaal produced a veiled offer of 
support from the Emperor of Germany to President Kriiger 
in Jan. 1 896, and this revelation of a new complication in our 
imperial responsibilities promptly united all parties in the 
colonies and at home in an unaccustomed sense of the 
identity of our imperial interests. Mr Joseph Chamberlain, 
as Minister for the Colonies (1895), brought his important 



English Opinion and Colonial Policy. 339 

political influence and a high business ability to bear upon the 
quickening of this sentiment, which was further strengthened 
by the circumstances of the celebration of the second Victoria 
Jubilee, itself an exposition of the common loyalty of the 
Colonies to the Queen of England, and of the maritime power 
of the Empire. The South African War demonstrated this 
unity on the field of battle. 

The problem of Imperial Federation has never yet attained 
actual definition. During the last decade of the nineteenth 
century it was tentatively approached from the point of view 
of joint defence and, more remotely, of closer commercial re- 
lations. But the South African War had, amongst its broader 
consequences, the quickening of interest in the subject in 
quarters where it had previously been ignored. In the first 
place, it revealed the existence in the larger colonies of a 
wide-spread sentiment of Imperial unity, which expressed itself 
in personal and material sacrifices on behalf of British interests. 
This was in an important sense a new phenomenon, for the 
enthusiasm which marked American feeling in 1761 — 2 was, 
after all, inseparable from the sense of relief at the extinction 
of an ever-present danger to the colonies themselves. In the 
next place, the imperial sentiment of Canada and Australasia 
proceeds from communities whose political sympathies and 
traditions are those of English liberalism. But sentiment 
alone is an insufficient force to bring about any fundamental 
change in English colonial relations. The history of the past 
shows that external dangers or pressing internal needs have 
alone provided the indispensable impulse which autonomous 
communities require before a Federation can be attained. The 
fact that Britain is no longer alone in the field of colonial ex- 
pansion, whilst she has by instinct and good fortune secured in 
advance most of the available area open to white colonising 
peoples, is in itself a real and, with the growth of the German 
navy, an increasing danger. The disappointment of Germany 
at the South African settlement, her ill-will towards England, 



340 English Opinion and Colonial Policy. 

and the rapid strides with which she marches to a'position of 
rivalry both with the trade and with the naval position of this 
country, press with serious weight upon our statesmen both 
at home and in the Colonies. Moreover, the commercial 
situation is of the nature of an external peril : in face of the 
hostile tariffs of foreign nations the necessity of closer union 
between the various States of the empire is brought forcibly 
home. 

Thus at the close of the first decade of the century questions 
of deep importance to the future of the Empire are being 
asked. Is a policy of joint imperial Defence feasible ? If so 
upon what basis of organisation and of finance? Australia, 
New Zealand and Canada have begun to provide an answer. 
Is a common commercial policy possible? If so, is it con- 
sistent with the fiscal autonomy of the separate members of 
the Empire, or with the Free-Trade principles of the mother- 
country? If it is not thus consistent, how far is the ideal 
of an Empire self-contained in an economic sense possible 
or desirable? The policy of Colonial Preference has been 
set forth to meet this problem. To pass from Defence and 
Commerce to the constitutional organisation which would be 
involved in Federal action, discussion upon this latter head 
has characteristically made little progress. For it is entirely 
in accord with British political instincts that newly-conceived 
ends should be secured by the extension of existing machinery ; 
in the present case by enlarging or creating Committees of the 
Privy Council, by Conferences, by systematic communications 
and reports between the various capitals. The Imperial Con- 
ference has now become a standing institution, and has attained 
a higher status in that it received in 191 1 official communications 
on the relations of the Empire to foreign nations. 



341 



INDEX. 



Abdurrahman, 333 
Abercromby, General, 194 
Acadia, m, 189, 249 
Accra, 306 
Acheen, 74 
Adams, Samuel, 215 
Adelaide, 270 
Aden, 312, 313 
Afghanistan, 323, 333 
Africa, Central, 310 

— East, 311 

— South, 282, sqq. 

— West, 305, sqq. 

— Spheres of influence in, 309 
Afrikander Bond, 296 

Agra, 81, 246 
Ahmedabad, 81 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 89 
Akbar, 79 

Albany, Congress at, 191 
Albemarle, Lord, 146 
Alexander VI., Bulls of, 13 
Alexander, Sir Wm., in 
Algoa Bay, 286, 290 
Amboyna, 73, 74, 126 
America, discovery of, n, 12 

— Dutch in, 107, 108, 152, 155 

— European settlements in, 44 

— English in, 85 sqq. 

■ — French in, 44, 108, in, 112, 
162 sqq., 186, 187 sqq. 

— Spaniards in, 44, 45 
American colonies, revolt of, 209 sqq. 
Amherst, General, 194-196, 249 

— Lord (Governor-General), 320 
Amiens, Treaty of, 285 
Andros, Governor, 142 

Anian, Strait of, 43, 47 
Annapolis (Port Royal), in, 189 
Anson, Admiral, 186 
Antigua, 1 16 
Antilles, the, is 



Anwur-ood-Deen, 199 
Arcot, battle of, 200 
Argall, Capt., 1 1 1 
Argaum, 246 
Armada, the, 29, 61 
Ashantee, wars with, 307 
Assaye, battle of, 246 
Auckland, 278 

— Lord, 323 
Aurungzebe, 177 
Australia, 263 sqq. 

— exploration of, 263, 268 

— West, 270 

— South, 270 
Australian aborigines, 264 

— self-government, 271 

— Federation, 274, sqq. 

Baccalaos (Labrador), 36 
Bacon, Lord, on Colonies, 111 
Bahamas, occupation of, 119 
Baltimore, Lord, 96, in 
Baluchistan, 334 
Bantam, 73, 74 
Barbados, 113, 115 
Bassein, Treaty of, 246, 318 
Basutos, 290 
Bechuanas, 290 
"Benedict," the, 33 
Bengal, Clive in, 203 

— Dutch in, 203 

— English factories in, 178 

— English posts in, 82 

— French in, 203 

— Portuguese in, 81 

— position of E.I. C. in, 204, 230 
Bentinck, Lord W. (Governor-Gene- 
ral), 321 

Berar, Rajah of, 245, 246 
Berkeley, Governor, 143 
Berlin Conference, 309, 338 
Best, Capt., 78 

aa— 3 



342 



Index. 



Bermudas, occupation of, 118 

Blantyre, 311 

Boer War, the, 297 sqq. 

Boers, the, 284 sqq. 

Bombay, acquired, 176 

Borneo, 315 

Boscawen, Admiral 206 

Boston, 101, 141, 210, 214 

Boston Port Act, 214 

Braddock, General, 193 

Bradford, Governor, 98 

Brand, President, 294 

Brazil, 13 

Breda, Treaty of, 153 

Brisbane, 271 

British Columbia, 259 

— Honduras, 304 

— N. Borneo, 315 

— New Guinea, 315 
Brooke, Sir James, 315 
Buccaneers, the, 175 
Bulawayo, 292 
Burgoyne, General, 223 
Burke, Edmund, 215, 219, 232 
Burmah, wars with, 320, 326 
Burnett, Governor, 188 
Bushmen, 283 

Bussy, Marquis de, 200, 237 
Buxar, battle of, 229 

Cabot, John, 12 

— Sebastian, 12, 16 
Cadiz, 46, 53, 63 
Calcutta, founded, 178 
California, Drake lands in, 36 
Callao di Lima, 35 
Camden, battle of, 224 
Campbell, Sir Colin, 330 
Canada, French missionaries in, 69, 

restored to France, 126; coloni- 
sation of, 163 sqq.; French in, 
187; conquest of, 196; American 
revolt, 222; under British rule, 
249 sqq. 

Canadian Pacific Railroad, 261 

Canaries, the, 14, 22 

Canning, Lord, 328 

Canterbury, 279 

Cape Coast Castle, 306. 

Cape Colony, 152, 283 sqq. 

Cape of Good Hope, 54 



Cape de Verde Islands, 13, 34 

Cape route, 11 

Carnatic, the, 199-202 

Carolinas, the, settled, 146 sqq., 
216, 221, 224 

Carthagena, 25 

Cartier, Jacques, 44 

Cathay, Cathaia, N.W. route to, 
40, 56 

Cawnpore, 330 

Cecil, William (Lord Burghley), 19, 
20, 21, 33, 38, 51, 53, 59 

Celeron, 190 

Ceylon, 301 

Chamberlain, Mr, 338 

Champlain, 68, 108 

Champlain, Lake, 169, 192, 195, 
225 

Chancellor, Richard, 16 

Chandernagore, 197, 202 

Channel Rovers, the, 19 

Charles I, and the E.I.C., 84 

patents of, 96, 107, in, 114 

attitude to the colonies, 126 

navy under, 127 

Charles II, 120; colonial policy, 
131; and Virginia, 143, 144 

Charlestown, 148, 150, 224 

Chartered Co. of B. S. Africa, 296 

Charters ("patents") granted to Gil- 
bert, 44; to Raleigh, 49, 50; 
E.I.Co.'s, 84, 126, 133, 180; 
Virginia, 86, 89, 92, 93; Mary- 
land, 96; Plymouth Co.'s, 98; 
Massachusetts Co.'s, 100, 142, 
214; Maine, 107; insecurity of, 
109, 126; Newfoundland, in; 
Nova Scotia, in; James I's, 
114; St Kitts, 116; Bahamas, 
119; privileges of, 122; Carolina, 
146; of Gustavus Adolphus, 152; 
of Liberties, 154; Penn's, 156; 
of Georgia, 160; Hudson's Bay 
Co.'s, 162 ; Alexander's, 164 ; Ohio 
Co.'s, 190; African Co.'s, 172; 
North Borneo Co.'s, 315; Niger 
Co.'s, 309 

Chatham, Earl of, see under Pitt, 
William 

Chilianwalla, 325 

Chitral, 335 



Index. 



343 



China, trade with, 313, 314 
Chuttanutti, 178 

Circars, the, 201, 202 

Clarendon, Earl of, 131, 132, 140, 
146 

Clinton, Sir Henry, 222-3 

Clive, 202 sqq., 230-3 

Colbert, 163, 196 

Colonial Department, 138 

Colonial Policy in XIX Century, 336 

Colonisation, Dutch methods of, 75, 
107, 152, 158; English motives 
to, 42 sqq. ; French methods of, 
44, 163; Hayes and Peckham on, 
41; Portuguese, 70; Spanish, 27, 

45 

Columbus, Christopher, 1 1 

Commons, House of, 65, 136 

Commonwealth, navy under the, 
127 sqq. 

Company ("patent") of Muscovy, 
16; of Cathay, 47 ; Gilbert's, 4S; 
Raleigh's, 49; Levant, 61; East 
India, 72; Governor of E. I. C, 
177; E. I. C. acquires Bengal, 
178, 181, 199-205; dissolved, 
330 ; Dutch E. I., 76, 283-4 5 Vir- 
ginia, 86 sqq. ; of Plymouth (New 
England), 98; of Massachusetts, 
100; of British Canada, 112; 
French, of Islands of America, 
116; of Carolina, 119; Dutch 
West India, 153; Hudson's Bay, 
161; of the West, 163; African, 
172; French East India, 196; 
North Borneo, 315; British South 
Africa, 296; New Zealand, 278; 
Niger, 309 

Conflans, 202 

Congress of the Colonies, 215 

Connecticut, 106, 140 

— River, 106, 108 
Constitution, Locke's, 148 

— of Virginia, 87-93 
Contractation House, 28 
Cook, Captain, 264 
Coote, Eyre, 205 
Cornwallis, Lord, 224, 239 
Coromandel Coast, the, 81 
Counter-Reformation, the, 18 
Courten, Richard, 114 



Cromwell, Oliver, 118; and the 

navy, 129, 138 
Cronje, General, 297 
Crown Colonies, list of, 5-7 
"Crown colony" described, 3 
Crown Point, 187 
Culpepper, Lord, 144 
Curacoa, 115, 134 

Dakota, 187 

Dale, Governor of Virginia, 93 

Dalhousie, Lord, 325, 327 

Dampier, 264 

Darien Scheme, the, 176 

Davis, John, voyages of, 53, 73 

Deccan, the, 179, 199, 200 

Declaratory Act, the, 212 

Deerfield, 169 

D'Iberville, 164 

Delaware, Governor, 67, 70; River, 

152; Settlements, 153 
Delhi, 180, 198, 204, 329, 330 
De Monts, 68, m 
De Soto, 45 
D'Urban, 290 
Dingaan, 292 
Dinwiddie, Governor, 190, 191 

192 
"Discourse," Gilbert's, 40 
" — on Trade" by Sir J. Child, 

.133 sqq. 
Disruption, motives to, 216-219 
Doctrine of "Lapse," 327 
Dominica, 24, 25, 112, 116, 207 
Dominion of Canada, 256 
Dost Mahomed, 324 
Drake, Sir Francis, 25, 30; voyages, 

3 X > 39> 5°; an< ^ the Admiralty, 

59, 60, 62 
"Dreadnought," the, 61 
Dupleix, 180, 197-201 
Duquesne, General, 190 
Durham, Lord, 255 
Dutch colonisation, methods of, 75, 

107, 152, 158, 283-4 
Dutch, the, 65, 68, 71, 73 sqq., 78, 

97, 123, 124, 133 

East, route to the, 53 sqq. 
Edenton, 147 
Egypt. 241. 3 13 



344 



Index. 



Elizabeth, Queen, policy of, 18; 
and the Corsairs, 21 ; and Drake, 
31; and Raleigh, 49; and the 
fleet, 58; death of, 62 

"Elizabeth," the, 35 

Elmina, 305 

Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 319 

Endicott, 101 

England, and Discovery, 11; ex- 
ternal growth of, 13, 14, 17; and 
the Slave Trade, 26; and Portu- 
gal, 69 ; and her colonies, 1 2 1 sqq., 
131, 182; and Spain, 184, 185; 
and France, 186; and Treaty of 
Paris, 207 

England, New, 97 sqq., 104, 214 

English, characteristics of the colon- 
isation, 66 sqq., 103, 167; in the 
East, 69 sqq. ; in N. America, 
85, 146, 161, 162, 192; in West 
Indies, 192; in India, 176, 196 

Erie, Lake, 152, 156, 164 

Eyre, Edward John, 268 

Fairfax, 128 

Federation, motives to, 107; work- 
ing of, no; of American colonies 
against England, 192; in Canada, 
456; in Australia, 274 

Fiji. 315 

Five nations (Iroquois), 188 

Florida, 24, 45, 184, 207 

Forbes, 194 

Fort, Duquesne, 192, 194; Fron- 
tenac, 194; Niagara, 194; Os- 
wego, 188; St David, 179; St 
George, 179, 197 ; William Henry, 
194; James, 306; William, 178 

France, New, 163 

Francis I, 13 

Franklin, Benjamin, 191 

Frederick II, 182, 184 

French, the, methods of colonisa- 
tion, 44, 46, 69, 144, 163; in 
America, 108, 155, 162 sqq., 187- 
196; in India, 196-202; Treaty 
of Paris, 207; intervention in 
America, 223; in West Africa, 
308 

Frobisher, Martin, voyages, 47 

Frobisher's Bay, 47 



Frontenac, 164 
Fundy, Bay of, 168 

Gage, General, 219 

Gambia, River and Settlement, 305, 

306 
Gambroon, 81 
"Gaspee," the, 218 
George II, 190 

George III and America, 207, 209 
Georgia, 160, 185 
Germaine, Lord, 221 
German colonists, the, 158, 160, 191 
Gibraltar, 184, 206 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 39, 48, 49 

— "Discourse" of, 40 
Goa, 71 

Gold Coast, the, 306 
"Golden Hind," the, 33, 35, 36 
Golkonda, 81 

Gorges, Sir F., 86, 88, 149 
Govendpore, 178 
Grenada, 117 

Grenville, George, polfcy of, 121, 
141 

— Sir Richard, 49, 50, 52 
Grey, Sir G., 270, 279-280, 291 
Guadeloupe, 207, 209 

Guiana, 52, 97, 303 
Guinea Coast, the, 14, 15, 23 
Gujerat, 325 
Gurkhas, the, 317 
Gustavus Adolphus, 15a 

Haidarabad, Nizam of, 179, 236, 

240, 242-4 
Hakluyt, 14, 86 
Hardinge, Lord (Governer-General), 

3 2 5 
Harvard, John, 104 
Hastings, Warren, 233-8 

— the Marquess, 317-320 
Hausas, the, 310 
Havannah, 28, 185, 206 
Hawke, Lord, 186 
Hawkins, Capt., 78 

— John, 38, 45, 46, 51, 59, 61-63 

— and the slave trade, 22-27, I1 3> 
171 

— William, 14, 22, 57 
Hayes, on colonisation, 41 



Index. 



345 



Henry VII, u, 12 
Henry VIII, 12, 13 
and the navy, 14, 56, 58, 59 

— the Navigator, 14 

— Patrick, 215 
Hispaniola, 120, 171, 247 
Hobson, Capt, 277 
Holkar, 180, 235 
Honduras, British, 304 
Hong Kong, 314 
Hoogly, 81, 177 

Hore, 14 

Hottentots, the, 283, 285 

Howe, Lord, 184, 194 

— Admiral, 222 
Hudson's Bay, 66, 131 

Company, 161, 258 

Huguenots, the, 20, ai, 45, 46, 148, 

283 
Hyderabad, see Haidarabad 

Iceland Seas, the, 21 

Imperial Federation, 339 

Independence, Declaration of, 216 

Independents, the, 102 

India, 66, 71-85, 176-181, 196-205, 

229-248, 316-335 
India Bill (Pitt's), 238 
Indians, the, 36, 45, 105, 109, 143, 

H5» 155. 101 1 168, 169, 193, 252 
Indian Ocean, the, 36 
Indies, the East, route to, 40, 206 

— the West, acquired, 112-121; 
and slavery, 1 71-176, 207, 303, 
304-305; and Hawkins, 22; and 
Drake, 30, 32, 58, 62 

Inquisition, the, 21, 38 
Iroquois, the, 68, 152, 188 
Italian artillerists, 60 

Jamaica, 1 19-121, 152, 175 
James I and expansion, 65, in 

— lit 144 

Jameson, Dr, 296 

Jamestown, 86 

Java, 313 

Jehangir, 79, 80 

Jesuits, the, 18, 109, 163, 164 

''Judith," the, 30 

Kaffirs, the, 289-290 



Kalat, Khan of, 333 

Kalicotta (Calcutta), 178 

Kennebec, River, 188 

Kingston, 121 

Kirk, Sir John, 311 

Kirke, Captain, 169 

Kitchener, Lord, 297 

Kriiger, Paul, 291, 295, 296, 297 

La Bourdonnais, Admiral, 186, 198, 

199 
Labrador, 14, 47 
Labuan, 315 
Lagos, 308 
Lally, 201, 202 
Lancaster, James, 71 sqq. 
Land Settlements in India, 239, 

322, 326 
La Salle, 164 
Las Casas, 26 
Laswarri, battle of, 246 
Laud, Archbishop, 126, 139 
Laurier, Sir Wilfred, 260 
Lawrence, Sir H., 325 
Lawrence, Lord, 325, 332 
Leeward Islands, the, 116, 118 
Leigh, Sir Olave, 113 
Lexington, 215, 222 
Leyden, 97 
Lisbon, 70 
Locke, John, and the Carolina Co., 

148 
Logstown, 190 
Louis XIV, 163 
Louisbourg, 170, 186, 189, 199 
Louisiana, 165, 207 
Loyalists, American, 226, 253 
Lucknow, 330 

Mackenzie River, 258 
Macquarrie, Governor, 266 
Madras, 82, 83, 177, 179, 199, 202, 

237, 242-4 
Madrid, Treaty of, 120 
Magellan, Straits of, 34, 120 
Mahe, 197, 202 
Mahrattas, the, 177, 180, 235, 245- 

7. 3i7t 3'9 
Maine, 107; and federation, no, 

257 
Majuba Hill, 295 



346 



Index. 



Malacca, 313 

Malay Peninsula, 313 

Malta, 302 

Manila, 206 

Manipur, 335 

Manitoba, 254, 256, 258 

Maoris, the, 264, 277 sqq. 

Marlborough, Earl of, 114 

Maroons, the, 120 

Marquette, 164 

Martinique, 207 

Mary, Queen, and the navy, 58 

Maryland, 96 

Massachusetts, settlement and con- 
stitution, 100-104; and federation, 
110, 139-142, 215 

Masulipatam, 177, 179 

Matabili, 290-1^ 

Mauritius, the (lie de France), 197, 
302 

"Mayflower," the, 97, 98 

Mayo, Lord, 332 

Meerut, 330 

Melbourne, 260 

"Meta Incognita," 47 

Michigan, Lake, 164 

Middleton, Sir Henry, 73, 75, 78 

Milner, Lord, 297 

Mir Jaffier, 204, 205, 229 

Mississippi River, 69, 164 

Missouri River, 164 

Mocha, Sultan of, 78 

Moghul, the, 79, 177, 229, 329-331 

Mohamed Ally, 201 

Moluccas, the, 71, 73 

Montcalm, 193, 196 

Montgomery, General, 222 

Montreal, 44, 163, 192 

Montserrat, 116 

Mozuffir Jung, 200 

Morgan, 175 

Murray, 250-1 

Murray, the river, 268 

Muscovy Company, 16 

Mysore, 243, 321 

Nadir Shah, 117, 203 
Nagpur, 308, 318, 327 
Nana Sahib, 329 
Nankin, Treaty of, 314 
Napoleon, Emperor, 241, 301-4 



Natal, 292, 293 

Navigation Acts, the, 123, 124, 138, 
141, 212 

Navy, the English, under Henry 
VIII, 14, 56; under Mary, 58; 
under Elizabeth, 58, 60; guns, 
59; organisation, 60; tactics, 62; 
under Commonwealth and Crom- 
well, 127-9; cost of, 130 ; Spanish, 
75; Portuguese, 60 

Nelson, 301 

— (New Zealand), 278 
Nepal, 317 

Nevis, 116 

New, Albion, 37; Amsterdam, 153; 
England, 97 sqq., 104, 214; 
France, 163; Hampshire, 107, 
169; Jersey, 155; Netherlands, 
152; Orleans, 207; York, 154, 
170 

New Brunswick, 252, 256 

Newcastle, Duke of, 137, 141 

Newfoundland, 12, 48, no, 168 

New South Wales, 264, 265, 267, 
268 

New Zealand, 277 sqq. 

Niger, the, 308 

Nigeria, 309 

Nile, battle of, 301 

North, Lord, 213 

North- East Passage, 16 

North-West Passage; Drake, 36; 
Frobisher, 47; Davis, 53; Van- 
couver, 258; arguments for, 54 
sqq., 78 

North-West Territories, 259 

Nova Scotia (see also Acadia), m, 
249 

Ochterlony, General, 317 
Oglethorpe, General, 160 
Ohio, 187 

•Olive Branch' Petition, the, 215 
Ontario, Lake, 170, 187, 194 

— Province of, 252-3 
Orange Free State, 292, 294 
Orange Free State, Annexation of, 

397 
Orinoco, explored, 24, 52, 53 
Orissa, 180, 204 
Ortelius, 14 



Index. 



347 



Oswego, 192, 194 

Otago, 279 

Oudh, 180, 229, 238, 244, 327, 319, 

33° 

Outram, Major, 319 

Pacific Ocean, the, 32, 34 

— Canadian, Railway, 261 
Panama, 63, 175 

— Isthmus of, 31 

Paris, Treaty of (1763), 207 

Park, Mungo, 308 

Patna, 178 

Peckham, on colonisation, 41 

Pelew Islands, the, 37 

Penang, 313 

Penn, William, 156, 157 

Pennsylvania, 131, 156 sq., 221 

Penobscot River, 168, 188 

Permanent Settlement, 239 

Peshwa, 235, 246, 318 

Philadelphia, 36, 37 

Philip II, 19, 24, 25, 30, 46 

Philippines, the, 36, 37 

Phillip, Governor, 265 

Piccawillany, 190 

Pilgrim Fathers, the, 97 

Pindaris, the, destroyed, 317 

Piscataqua Bay, 107 

Pitt, William (E. of Chatham), 137, 

183, 184, 194,206, 208, 213, 217, 

219 
Pitt, William, the younger, 238, 

241- 3 01 

Pittsburg, 190 

Plains of Abraham, 195 

Plassey, 204 

Plymouth, New, 97, 98 

Pondicherry, 196, 199-201 

Popham, Chief Justice, 86 

Population, of American colonies, 
2 1 o ; of Barbados , 1 1 5 ; of Ca nada, 
166; of Carolina, 147; of Penn- 
sylvania, 158; of Virginia, 94 

Port Royal, 100, n r, 168, 109 

Porto Bello taken, 186 

Portugal, 13; her colonial empire, 
70 

Pretoria, Peace of, 297 

Prideaux, 195 

Providence (Rhode I.), 106 



Puerto Rico, 63 

Punjab, the, 324-6 

Puritans, the, 100, 104, 120, 219 

Quakers, the, 140, 147, 191, 193, 

219 
Quebec, 195, 209, 222, 253 
Quebec Act, the, 251 
"Queen's ships," the, 35 
Queensland, 271 
Quiheron, 206 

Raffles, Sir Stamford, 313 

Rajputana. 79, 319 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, and Virginia, 

49; and Guiana, 52; executed, 

126 
Regulating Act, 231 
Restoration, the, and Virginia, 143 
Reunion (lie de Bourbon), 197 
"Reunion" Act, 256 
"Revenge," the, 59, 6a 
Rhode Island, 102, 106, no, I41, 

223 
Rhodes, Cecil, 296 
Rhodesia, 296 
Richelieu River, 195 
Riel, Louis, 259 
Rio Grande do Sul, 34 
Roanoke, 49, 50 
Rockingham, Lord, 212 
Rodney, 225 
Roe, Sir Thomas, 79 
Rohilkhand, 238, 330 
Rose, Sir Hugh, 330 
Runjeet Singh, 325 
Ryswick, Peace of, 166 

St Augustin, 1 49 

St Croix River, in 

St Germains, Peace of, in 

St John's, 12, 48 

St Kitts (Christopher), 116, 117 

St Lawrence, River, 44, 108 

St Lucia, 113, 116, 303 

St Vincent, 175, 207 

Salem, 100, 10 1 

San Domingo, 206 

San Juan de Uloa, 25, 30 

Sand River Convention, 2^4 

Sandwich, Lord, 221 



348 



Index. 



Sandys, Sir Edwin, 91 
Santiago di Cuba, 156 
Saratoga, 223 
Saskatchewan River, 187 
Sattara, Rajah of, 319, 327 
Selden, 126 
Sepoys, 318 

Seringapatam Taken, 243 
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 131, 146 
Shirley, Governor, 189, 191 
Shuja, Shah, 324 
Sidney, 131 

Sierra Leone, 23, 307-8 
Sikhs, 323, 324-5, 330 
Sindia, 245, 318 
Singapore, 313 

Slave Trade, the, and John Hawkins, 
22, 26, 171-6; 305 sqq. 

— system, the, 151, 159, 289 
Smith, John, 89 

— Sir Thomas, 86, 90 
Sobraon, 325 

Somers, Sir George, 86, 118 

— Islands, 118 

Somerset, Protector, and the navy, 

5 8 
South Australia, 270, 272 

Southampton, Earl of, 85 

Spanish claims to New World, 13, 

68 

— colonisation, methods of, 27, 

45 
Straits Settlements, 314 
Suffren, 225, 237 
Sumatra, 73, 313 
Suraj-ood-Dowlah, 204 
Surat, 70, 79, 80, 82, 177 
Suttee, 322 

Swally Roads, fight of, 78 
Swedes in America, 152, 153, 158 
Sydney, 265 

Talon, 165 

Tanjore, 244 
Tasman, 263 
Tasmania, 267, 269 
Ternate, 37, 68, 71 
Thugs, 322, 326 
Ticonderoga, 193-5 



Tierra Firma, 28 

Tippoo Sultan, 238, 240, 24a 

Tobago, 207, 303 

Tordesillas, Treaty of, 13 

Torres, Luis de, 263 

Townshend, Charles, 213 

Trafalgar, 301 

Transvaal, Annexation of, 294, 295, 

297 
"Trek," "The Great," 291 
Trincomalee, 301 
Trinidad, 303 

Utrecht, Peace of, 137, 169, 173 

Vaal River, 291 
Vancouver, Lieut., 258 

— Island, 259 
Vernon, Admiral, 186 
Victoria, colony of, 269, 272 
Victoria, Queen, Empress of India, 

331 
Virginia, 49, 52, 85-96, 143-146, 
224 

Wabash River, 187 
Waitangi, Treaty of, 277 
Walpole and the colonies, 137, 184 
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 48 
Wandewash, battle of, 202 
Washington, George, 215 sqq. 
Wellesley, Marquis, 241 sqq., 316, 

3*9> 33* 

— Sir A., 246 

Western Australia, 270, 273 
William III, 154 
Williams, Roger, 106 
Williamsburg, 146 
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 16 

— Governor, 135, 303 
Windward Islands, the, 1x7 
Winthrop, Governor, 100, 101 
Wolfe, General, 184, 195, 196 

York, Duke of, 153 
Yukon, 259 

Zemindars, 239 

Zulus, 289, 290, 291, 295 



CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. B. PEACE, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 



